Mutants Effect
by Survivor243
Summary: Mutant Kind has left Earth behind once the Asari discovered both Mutants and Humans were on the brink of war, destroying the 314 Relay after they left the Sol System. For over a century, Mutants were kept a secret from the galactic community, but not anymore. Follow Chad "Titan" Matthews on his journey to find the one thing a tortured soul needs. R&R Please.
1. Chapter 1

**Timeline of Mutant History**

**2018/ CT 2102- **Discovery of the 314 Relay is discovered by a Volus mining ship and passed on to the Citadel Council for consultation, tension from the Rachni Wars are still high. Debates are made to decide if the Relay will remain inactive or if it to be activated and allow an exploratory ship to explore the system.

**2022- **Asari Republic deep space exploratory vessel _Fleeting Change _travels through the 314 Relay leading into the Sol System, discovering that the Relay on the receiving end was nearly destroyed from asteroid impacts and would only be capable of sending ships into the known galaxy a handful of times before failing.

**2022, December 2- **The ship stumbles across Earth, staying far enough of out range to avoid being seen or detected as they began conducting typical surveillance of the planet and its inhabitants.

**2023- **It is discovered that Humans occupy the planet, however it is also discovered that another breed, known as Mutants, are also on the planet. It is noted that both species, according to the Asari, are embroiled in a war for survival against the Sentinels, a new weapon Humans had created to fight the Mutants. Rather than return back through the 314 Relay to report these findings to the Council or Asari Republic, the crew decided to remain and watch.

**2024- **Open war is declared on Mutants as they become a hunted populace on the planet, so the Asari decide to intervene.

**2024, May 11- **First Contact with Earth is conducted, peaceful intentions are passed between the Asari and Earth at first before a rouge state known to be North Korea attempts to use untested missile technology to launch nuclear warheads at the ship sitting in stationary orbit.

**2024, May 15- **Having avoided the missiles with ease, the Asari send another offer, to take away all the Mutants to avoid a genocidal war, along with the technology to ensure that no genetic defects would come from future Humans, in a sense making it impossible for them to ever spawn Mutants again.

**2024, June 3- **Nations of Earth agree to send all of their Mutants to a single staging point for the Asari to collect, having earned the trust from the Mutants when they helped build a device capable of communicating with every single Mutant on the planet. Rather than risk extinction or all-out war for survival, the Mutants decided that it would be best to leave peacefully and take the chance of starting over again away from prejudice.

**2024- **Over a thousand Asari ships pour through the 314 Relay to collect the Mutants, who were willingly leaving the planet, realizing that a specific timeline was given before the war would start. If not for direct intervention from the Asari Fleet, war would have started before the timeline was up, but once the cure, along with a few pieces of ancient alien technology, were handed over as payment, the Asari Fleet left the Sol System with four million mutants.

**2024/Citadel Time 2106- **After leaving a powerful bomb to destroy the 314 Relay, the Asari Fleet returned to the known system and decided to keep the existence of the Mutants a secret from the rest of the known galaxy. It was decided that hiding them in the Agar Nebula, located at the far side of Asari dominated space beyond the 226 Relay would be ideal, specifically on a planet in a system far from the Relay, a planet named New Haven.

**CT 2107- **Colonization efforts of New Haven is done in relative secrecy, few outside the Asari Republic even know of the Mutants as the displaced population begins to settle into their new home.

**CT 2108- **No technology from Earth had been brought back, aside from computers to store and contain all matter of knowledge taken from Earth, however animals, crops, resources, plants and literature was brought along as New Haven began to take shape.

**CT 2111- **Supplies and technology no longer needed to be shipped in from worlds to support the Mutants as they quickly recover from the abrupt transition, utilizing the technology given to them to start fending for themselves, already self-sufficient to sustain the current population.

**CT 2120- **Asari Republic have sealed off the 226 Relay due to a heavy presence of inter-galactic slavers, knowing that the Mutants would be alright for a few years until the slavers could be rooted out of Asari space. It would appear that New Haven, ten times larger than Earth with a perfect climate and fresh water oceans, was the best choice for such a large population to settle.

**CT 2133- **Relay 226 is reactivated after the slavers are dealt with in Council controlled space and it is discovered that Mutants had grown out of requiring technology given to them as they began developing their own, entering the Age of Discovery.

**CT 2145- **Asari interest groups, few in number, discover that Mutants had utilized mass effect technology to create their own, complying with Citadel wide embargo and technology agreements to make sure everything they had was 100% compatible as they asked for permission to start building ships.

**CT 2150- **Rather than hold Mutant kind back from entering the galactic community, Asari Republic interests allowed them to construct ships, knowing that having a naval fleet would go a long way. Little did they know how fast ships could be built, in less than a year five ships had been built and were already underway to explore the system New Haven was in, avoiding the Relay at all cost.

**CT 2152- **Several mining operations begin offworld, dragging asteroids from a nearby asteroid belt for raw minerals as Mutants start constructing a massive fleet, Asari Republic watches on as a new power comes into play.

**CT 2179- **In a surprising turn of events, Mutants, united under a single form of government, Coalition of MutantsCOM, have successfully created a hundred ships of their own designs, including a dozen orbital space stations around New Haven as they continue developing new technology. Population has already reached ten million and climbing rapidly, expansion of cities have extended to various parts of New Haven best ideal for settling.

**CT 2186- **A colony on another planet, New Folsom, is constructed as the lower atmosphere of the planet is negotiated due to the abundance of ezzo, so mining prospects on New Folsom have also introduced Mutants to biotic potential.

**CT 2205- **COM has passed a mandatory ezzo exposure mandate as Asari commandos begin to teach Mutants the finer aspects of biotics, giving Mutants an even larger advantage due to the fact that they could also master biotics with little to no problem.

**CT 2207- **Asari Republic hosts a celebration to signify the hundredth year of occupation on New Haven, a festival of sorts ensues and marks the calendar to be celebrated every year.

**CT 2210- **Travel from Relay 226 and the rest of Asari space is allowed, but only for Asari ships to avoid revealing their secret as personal envoys travel to different parts of Asari space incognito.

**CT 2275- **First contact between the rest of galactic community and Mutants is established on the Citadel, with a large Asari escort a diplomatic party of thirty COM ambassadors meet with the Citadel Council to discuss peace.

**CT 2275- **Enraged, the Turain Hierarchy and the Batarians, attempt to send a small scouting fleet past Relay 226, before they could mobilize, however, a large fleet of slavers attacked an Asari colony and attempted to enter through the Relay.

**CT 2275/Battle of Zelda- **In response to the slavers attacking an Asari colony, knowing that Council reinforcements would never arrive in time, COM sends fifty ships of war through the 226 Relay and decimates the slaver fleet without a single loss, rescuing the Asari and securing the system as more slavers enter the system.

**CT 2276- **Intervention from the Citadel Council reveals that the slaver fleet, now in tatters from the results of countless skirmishes with the COM, rallies one last time and plans attacks the Council Fleet attempting to spark a war between the Council and COM. In fact, COM ships were able to destroy what was left of the slaver fleet, conduct ground operations to remove any remaining slavers on any of the Asari colonies and retreated back through the 226 Relay before the Council Fleet could even arrive.

**CT 2277- **Aftermath of the intervention of the COM in Asari space was evident when fifty ships, thirty corvette class ships, fifteen frigates, three light assault carriers and two destroyer grade ships by COM standards had destroyed an accumulative two hundred sixty-four slaver vessels with only the loss of a single corvette. Reports gathered by the races of the Citadel were shocked to discover that ships over a kilometer in length were considered corvettes, granted it was the same mass accelerator technology as their own ships, but it was on much larger scales that what anyone had ever used before. Even reports from prisoners, survivors and various communication feeds showed that the ground troops of this particular Mutant force were just as brutal and efficient, systematically wiping out pockets of slaver resistance with few losses while displaying abilities that turned the ground combat in their favor.

**CT 2277- **Stunning reports are brought forth as evidence to the Citadel Council as it was debated if Mutants were considered too aggressive and hostile, earning an indignant reply from the COM ambassadors that they had done what any other race had done, remove the hostile threat from their allies and protect their own interests.

**CT 2278- **After envoys sent from New Haven, security is stepped up drastically after the COM discovered an attempt conducted by the Salarian STG to apprehend an entire ship, a patrol grade craft through means of disabling the ship. Resulting in thrashing the Salarian heavy cruiser with extensive damage and escaping after making sure no tracking devices, beacons, rouge data packets or spies were onboard. COM built a pair of orbital stations on their end of the 226 Relay and placed passive detection probes on the other end to given them an advanced fifteen minutes worth of warning as they started building a new ship to present to the Asari Republic.

**CT 2281- **Diplomatic actions earned Mutants the right to join the galactic community officially as military interest groups were shocked when a massive warship, a joint Mutant/Asari ship known as the _Nemesis _arrives at the Citadel, nearly causing a diplomatic incident before tensions were cooled. At a whopping 25 kilometers in length and armed with the largest armament even conceived of, the _Nemesis _dwarfed any ship known to the current galaxy, leaving the _Destiny Accession _as an escort. It was agreed that Asari held control over the rest of the galaxy when it was noted that COM simply handed the ship over to the Asari Republic without a second thought.

**CT 2282- **Travel beyond Relay 226 and Asari controlled space is granted for the Mutants as COM starts by establishing a colony on border planet, denying any ship, other than sanctioned Asari ships, to travel through Relay 226 to visit New Haven. Enforcing said law was allowed due to the fact that other races had down the same thing, a common practice to avoid having salvers or mercenaries attacking the home planet, an attack that could spark a war.

**Ship Classification**

**Freighters- **Typical Citadel freighters are used to make sure ships are compatible with current docking systems, namely the Kowloon class freighters are used. However, COM built two types of freighters that implement using the smaller Kowloon class as methods of delivery or as shuttles between the ship and whatever destination.

_Odyssey_- The smaller COM built freighter.

Length- 1 kilometer

Height- 200 meters

Width- 400 meters

Armament- 1 Primary, 2 Secondary, 4 missile pods, 20 point defense cannons and light armor plating.

Shields- Less than that of a standard corvette, but stronger than what is typically found on ships

Crew- 45 dedicated ship crew, 10 additional assistants and 5 medical personal

Description- Being largely a cargo freighter means that most of the ship isn't for crew occupation, four internal cargo bays on the bottom level of the ship run the length of the ship large enough to hold four Kowloon freighters apiece take up most of the ship, leaving two smaller shuttle bays. The ship has four basic areas, Bridge, Operations Deck, Engineering and Shuttle Decks, that are retrofitted to contain the crew and any passengers, making it one giant pack mule to haul an estimated two million tons of cargo.

_Behemoth_- The largest freighter class of the COM

Length- 5 kilometers

Height- 1.5 kilometers

Width- 1 kilometer

Armament- 4 Primary, 10 Secondary, 20 missile pods, 300 point defense cannons, and heavy armor plating

Shields- Classified

Crew- 250 dedicated ship crew, 75 additional assistants and 35 medical personal

Description- The largest cargo freighter class ship the COM has ever built or will ever build, essentially a much larger version of an Odyssey, eighteen internal cargo bays big enough to hold four Kowloon freighters each as well as three shuttle bays, roughly ten millions tons of cargo. Rarely seen outside Asari controlled space, several are noted to hanging around Asari colonies for the sole fact to act as protectors in the event hostile actions are ever taken.

**Warships- **Most of the ships are considered classified in terms of armament, shielding, armor, weapon stats and other combat capabilities, however general information can be given. It is best to assume that any warship is heavily armed and equipped with state of the art technology, better than their cargo counterparts.

_Ghost- _The most coveted ship in the COM, known to be mission critical scouting ships capable of operating invisible to sensors as well as visual optics as well for indefinite periods of time. Packed with scanners, sensors, radar, electronic warfare technology and other assorted goodies make them the ideal ships to sneak around undetected, making them highly classified and therefore no real information can be passed on, save for dimensions.

Length- 160 meters

Height- 50 meters

Width- 75 meters

_Bandit- _Patrol grade craft meant to take the place of corvettes with a smaller size, however making them ideal for long range patrol.

Length- 400 meters

Height- 100 meters

Width- 145 meters

_David- _Primary Corvette class ship of the COM, considered the workhorse of the fleet and most common type of warship, easily outgunning any other race, save for dreadnaughts and battleships, making them classified. Most of the time, corvettes are often mistaken for Odyssey freighters and vice versa, considering that they are the exact same size, but have much larger armaments, armor, shielding and other weapons.

ANY WARSHIP LARGER THAN A CORVETTE IS NOT ALLOWED OUTSIDE OF ASARI CONTROLED SPACE DUE TO THEIR HIGHLY CLASSFIED NATURE, THE ODDS OF SEEING A WARSHIP LARGER THAN A CORVETTE WOULD ONLY HAPPEN UNLESS TOTAL WAR IS WAGED ON THE GALAXY.

(A hint: Google Mass Effect Wiki and you'll find most of the ME 1 weapons/equipment/gear/etc currently disclosed if anyone was wondering.)

**General Weapon Information**

**Differences- **Mutant weaponry compared to that typically found in the rest of the galaxy is often considered to be superior due to the fact that improvements made in weapons technology made them better, resulting in more powerful weapons, as well as applying centuries of warfare by creating better weapons.

_Heat Sinks- _Every weapon system is built around a heat sink system that can effectively dissipate most of the heat generated by the weapon when fired, resulting in prolonged lengths of fire before the weapon would overheat. With improved heat sinks means that the "caliber" of the weapon can be greatly increased, giving Mutant weapons a much larger bite compared to top of the line Citadel weapons while still being able to fire more rounds.

_Ammo Mods- _Because extensive study was conducted on greatly improving ammunition types in any weapon once it was discovered that different methods of combat could be done. Ammo mods such as armor-piercing, cryo, disruptor, shredder warp, incendiary, anti-personnel, concussive, harpoon, radioactive, polonium, chemical, proton, phasic, sledgehammer, hammerhead, high impact, high explosive, snowblind, inferno, tungsten, synthetic, anti-armor, anti-organic and stun ammo mods that can placed in everything from pistols to heavy machine guns. Another useful feature, often the most protected when it comes to ammo mods, is that two different ammo mods can be fused together, any number of combinations can be configured.

_Upgrade Mods- _While weapons come with standard base settings and configurations, individual users can modify and upgrade any weapon with just about any type of mod. Because upgrade mods are interchangeable between any weapon type, granted a few are built specifically for a certain weapon class, giving the widest variety of modification. Anything from combat sensors, combat optics, improved sightings, frictionless materials, high caliber barrels, rail extensions, scram rails, recoil dampeners, kinetic stabilizers, kinetic coils, hyper rails, mod rails and additional heat sinks can be added onto most weapon platforms. Using mod rails can increase the default number of upgrade mods by one, so adding more mod rails can result in having options available per weapon.

_Power Mods- _A relatively new discovery to individual weapons, similar to any other mod, it can be installed into weapons to increase a variety of functions. Because they are internal modifications, they can alter range, penetrating power, damage output, effectiveness against shields, subsonic rounds, deflection, rounds fired per pull of the trigger and even color of rounds, similar to tracers.

_Weapon Classes- _Simply the broad generalization of typical weapon classes associated with typical Council space and those found in the COM arsenal. Everything from pistols, submachine guns, carbines, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, anti-material rifles, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, squad automatic weapons, rocket launchers, particle beam weapons, energy base weapons and explosive devices ranging from grenades to industrial strength blasting charges.

**General Tech Information**

Omni-tools created by the COM are often times more superior than the counterparts found just about anywhere in Council space, some are even considered illegal for private civilians to own because they had available tech that can put any other omni-tool to shame.

_Tech Upgrades- _Simply downloaded programs onto omni-tools that allow the user to use several different functions. Every omni-tool comes standard with translator software, flashlights, audio/video recording device, interface units and typical scanners with no specific function. Other upgrades include, overload, combat drone, cryo blast, incinerate, sabotage, hack, tech armor, tactical cloak, sentry turret, medical scanners, mineral scanners, schematic scanners, omni-gel generator and some can have omni-blades used for close range melee combat.

**General Armor Information**

**Difference- **typically there are several types of armor in the Citadel races that are interchangeable, light, medium and heavy armors typically wore over the top of protective suits depending on the environments. Mutant armor systems are a breed apart, though kinetic barriers and shielding technology is often more powerful in Mutant armor with more available upgrade options.

_Modular- _Consists of a simple barrier projector, similar to shield belts that are typically worn without any kind of armor or protective suit, often worn under or over casual clothing. These systems are generally weak and provide little protection, meant to deflect stray rounds, shrapnel or provide a stronger layer of protection. Most modular systems appear as belt, but some can be altered in vests to provide better protection to the torso area of the body as well as stronger shields.

_Light- _Mostly a body suit with built in shield generators with thin armor plating already built into the suit to provide minimal protection in areas around the torso, thighs, neck and groin area of the body. Mostly worn by ship crews, vehicle crews, pilots and anyone usually found in law enforcement or in non-combatant positions such as field medics or sappers.

_Medium- _Common armor that is a serious step up from Light armor, additional armor plating worn over the top of existing plates built into the suit as the power typically associated to the shield generators is strong enough to stop multiple military grade weapon rounds. The delicate balance between protection and mobility, Medium grade armor is often favored by infantry or anyone expected to walk into a firefight. Upgrades can be installed to improve shield and barrier strength without overtaxing the power systems in the suit.

_Tactical- _Modified armor to lower weight and increase barrier strength, as well as increased shields, giving the user a higher grade of protection with more maneuverability, but lowering the chance of surviving a direct hit in the event that shields are taken down. Favored by specialty operators, such as snipers, CQB troopers, medics, techs and assault troops, most can agree that is a class of Light armor on its own, but the protection offered by shields and barriers is equal to that or higher than Medium armors.

_Heavy- _Worn to serve extreme punishment, reducing mobility and speed for the sake of protection against direct weapons fire, usually worn by soldiers, security forces, shock troopers and anyone expecting to walk into the middle of warzone. Encased in durable armor plating capable of shrugging off a few hits before failing, shield and barrier strength is increased several times higher than any other armor level, giving anyone wearing it the sense of being nearly indestructible.

_Powered Armor- _Is not considered individual body armor as it is essentially a robotic suit worn by an operator, typically associated with heavy ground units or any anti-infantry unit, these suits are mobile weapon platforms capable of bringing all kinds of firepower to the battlefield at solider level. Most can fit just about anyone, within a set size of course (5'5"-6'6") to fit inside the suit while already wearing standard body armor. Suits like these are slow, cumbersome and absolute powerhouses when pitted against regular enemy infantry as they have armor plating capable of stopping small arms dead in its tracks as the shielding and barriers that are second to none. Mutants are typically the only race deploying these kinds of units, but they are usually in low numbers, not effective enough to be sent in against large numbers alone, other races usually have mechs to counteract them.

_Armor Upgrades- _Because users can install various types of upgrades into armor components, except for Modular armor types, so meet a whole spectrum of needs. Ranging from plate inserts, protective fibers, shield battery, stimulant packs, armor plating, ablative coating, energized plating, hardened weave, first aid interface, medical interface, medical exoskeleton, kinetic buffer, kinetic exoskeleton mechanical joints, motorized exoskeleton, combat exoskeleton, shock absorbers, shield modulator, shield interface, shield regenerator, energized weave, toxic seals, hazard seals, pressurized seals, biotic amp modulator, biotic interface, tactical cloaking interface and camouflage mods.

**Ground Vehicle Information**

**Description- **Most of the typical ground vehicles are rated for atmospheric insertion from orbit with an operating crew and a possible ground team as well.

_Mako- _Most common ground transport with weapons, shielding and armor, universal across the entire system, though they require a driver and gunner and can carry up to six various individuals in the rear compartment. A single mass accelerator cannon and a machine gun complete the armament, the shielding balance out the need for heavier armor plating, they come standard with micro jets to allow tactical insertion from orbit. Triple axel vehicle with independent suspension systems for increased terrain coverage, known to be driven just about anywhere.

_Beast- _Exclusive COM vehicle designed solely for maximum firepower, durability, transportation and counter any known battlefield threat, including anti-air targets. Armed with a single 300 millimeter primary cannon, four medium grade machine guns, a AA missile pod capable of bringing down shuttles and gunships within range, powerful shields, layers of armor plating and even a rear bay capable of holding a dozen ground troops.

_Grizzly- _Exclusive Council grade main battle tank, crew of four, armed with a single 280 millimeter cannon and a single machine gun, it was designed to counter infantry and enemy vehicles while on the ground. Has no AA defense abilities and no shields either, relying heavily on superior range and thicker armor, has a fast ground speed and cannot be inserted from orbit, requiring delivery from shuttle or ship.

**Shuttle & Fighter Information**

**Descriptions- **Due to the fact that docking ships can sometimes be difficult and entering the orbit of most planets would result in catastrophic failure of the ship, so standard shuttles were built.

_Kodiak- _The original shuttle famously known across the galaxy, every races uses them, including the COM for general purposes, but they have upgraded versions of their Kodiak shuttles. Most can hold up to six passengers with a single pilot, rated for orbit insertion and travel, unshielded and rarely armored, intergalactic law states that shuttles cannot be outfitted with weapons unless they are part of some military organization. COM has outfitted all of their shuttles with modified engines to support the additional weight of armor plating, shield generators and countermeasures for regular travel to avoid breaking any laws.

_Mantis- _The universal gunships found in the galaxy, illegal for anyone other than the military to either own or operate, not rated for space flight, leaving it as the planetary role of air to ground support ship. Packed with heavy cannons, missiles and outfitted with shields and armor, this particular gunship is popular with military teams, rouge pirate groups, slavers and gangs associated with illegal enterprises.

_Jaguar- _COM specialty multi-purpose space fighter/bomber and orbital gunship, capable of transitioning between the two roles without too much difficulty and is considered highly classified. It is known that several of them operating in wolf packs (they travel in groups of three) they can easily overwhelm a single larger ship because they carry a single cannon of dealing significant damage, recharge times between shots is classified. They can easily put a Mantis to shame with the kind of firepower they boast and the amount of shielding and armor can deflect ship grade weapons.

**Types of Mutants**

**Description- **Pretty much anything that can thought of is considered in the COM, granted altering the body or mentality of any mutant (unless it is medical care or subduing the individual to avoid further damage) is considered taboo.

(Google search List of Superpowers Wiki if you were wondering.)

**The COM OD-621 "Reckoning"**

**Description- **The Odyssey class freighter heavily modified to be the first intergalactic exploratory vessel sanctioned by the COM to conduct a tour of the known galaxy to survey planets, systems, asteroid clusters, solar stars, active Relays and explore possible ancient ruins while conducting regular patrol missions. It is in a sense visiting various parts of the galaxy to introduce themselves to the rest of the galactic community, making it a quasi-mining exploration and general peace keeping ship.

Length- 1 kilometer

Height- 200 meters

Width- 400 meters ****

Armament- 1 Primary, 2 Secondary, 4 missile pods loaded with probes, 16 missile pods loaded with actual ship to ship missiles, 35 point defense cannons, two Kowloon freighters, six Mako IFVs, two Beasts, four Jaguars, six Kodiak shuttles and thicker armor plating.

Shields- Less than that of a standard corvette, but stronger than what is typically found on ships they might face.

Crew- 110 ship crew with a contingent of engineers and technicians, there are 30 miners with several geologists with a modified section of the Rear Shuttle Bay acting as Mining Control Operations for future survey operations. In addition to the enlarged ship crew, there are also 40 soldiers, affectionately known as Apes by the ship crew that are to provide combat support in the event the ship or the crew comes under hostile attack.

Commanding Officer- Capt. Jonathan Carter, age 43, capable of density control, saw action from the start of the Battle of Zelda, named after the loss of his own ship when he took seventy-three slaver ships singlehandedly to buy the defenseless transport shuttles time to retreat back the 226 Relay. Awarded the highest honor of the COM, Star of Valor, for destroying thirty-eight slaver ships before his own ship was rendered ineffective, giving his crew time to destroy sensitive materials and technology before he ordered them to abandon ship over an Asari colony of Rakka. Once his crew was safely away, he turned a portion of his ships' hull into a denser material thick enough to stop incoming fire and turned his ship into a battering ram. After taking out another nine ships in this manner, he set the self-destruct and bailed out of his own ship, the resulting blast injured him and took another four slaver ships with it. Once he reached the surface of the planet, he regrouped with his crew and held a defensible position long enough for reinforcements to arrive. His crew thinks of him as fair man and would follow him to the ends of the galaxy at his word, loyal to him and he is a trustworthy individual who sees the galaxy as typical community.

Combat Trooper Sergeant Chad "Titan" Matthews- age 23, saw ground action on Rakka against the worst of it, bears emotional scars from losing his ground team as he stood toe-to-toe against several hundred slavers over the span of week, inflicting four hundred sixty-eight confirmed casualties with another hundred twenty-five probable. He earned the Star of Valor, Award of Honor and ranks as the sole person of the COM who has killed every known race consisting of the Council and others that weren't in a single engagement. Asari Republic officials states that the garrisoned temple he spent five days protecting housed a thousand refugees, unarmed and wounded, reported that he never once stopped in his assault on enemy lines. They awarded him the Medal of Hope for his dedicated bravery and it didn't hurt that there was as Asari matriarch's daughter and life mate inside the temple as well. Being a Feral class mutant makes him damn near difficult to kill, of course coupled with biotics and a childhood incident where he was exposed to a new type of nanites that adhered to his bones and changed him. Turned out that he was deliberately exposed to them in his sleep by a man who wanted to take mutant potential beyond their potential, his own father, so increased growth, muscle density and bones turning into titanium. Coupled with the fact he had naturally fast regeneration ability, associated with Feral mutants in particular, he has increased strength, aggression he finds outlets to channel, claws on every digit, superior reflexes, speed, hearing, vision and can eat anything, dextro foods as well. Standing at a whopping 7' 2" and 280 pounds in his socks, he requires custom made armor and has a few weapons he customized himself, most of the time he remains alone, having lost all of his friends, his wife and his son when slavers bombarded the temple.


	2. Mutants Effect A Little Road Trip

**Chapter 1: A Little Road Trip**

**Bridge of the Reckoning**

Captain Carter stood next to the helmsmen watching stars flash past the observation windows that made up the wall in front of him as various crew members idly worked at their stations to monitor the progress of the ship, the Reckoning. The new ship was a change from his old corvette he had lost, but his mission was changed as well, he had turned down the offer to join the Chief of Staff because he would be taken away from ships and chained to a desk, something he really didn't want to do. Instead he had stayed on as a ship captain, volunteering to be the CO of the Reckoning on her maiden voyage across all known space to conduct exploration.

It was also the tour to let everyone else in the Citadel space know that a new player was on the block as well, hopefully avoiding total war as they pretty much wandered around the galaxy.

He figured that it was either that or sit behind a desk pushing out memos, attend stuffy board meetings and do things he just didn't want to do in his twilight years before he had to retire, of course his wife supported him in his decision to do what he wanted to do. That and he had to keep an eye on one of his Troopers, Sergeant Matthews was considered a hero in New Haven and there wasn't an Asari alive that wouldn't want to take a look inside his head, being a Feral meant he could live unnaturally long. Come to think of it, several Feral mutants were still alive from when they left Earth, Carter mused as he checked the speed and heading of the Reckoning before turning to the VI pedestal.

"Liza, how is our heading?"

A light construct of green light rose up to about three feet high, depicting the image of an ancient female Valkyrie from the Old Nordic legends as she hefted the mace onto her shoulder.

"Twenty-three minutes out of the Citadel, all ship operations at full capacity and the crew is in high spirits," she paused for a second as stream of gold flickered across her image, "we have passed into the Citadel traffic sensors now."

"Excellent, prep the crew for shuttle launch, I want a rotation schedule of everyone," Carter paused as he shrugged, "ten standard hours of liberty and self-defense weapons are required."

"Aye Captain" Her image disappeared as the ship dropped out of the Relay.

A purple mist consisting of the Widow Nebula cloaked the Citadel for a few moments before it came into view, magnificent as always and a sight to see as everyone watched a display that Liza was broadcasting through the ship to let everyone see as the Reckoning moved closer.

"Citadel traffic control is hailing us on the usual com frequencies," an operator near the left side of the bridge called out as the interface next to Carter glowed to life, "patching you through Captain."

"We have just received your IFF tag readings Reckoning," a warbled voice spoke over the com, "please proceed to the staging area near the Turain dreadnaughts staged next to the Citadel."

"Copy that Control," Carter replied curtly as he terminated the signal, "put some distance between us and that last ship in line, ten kilometers at most."

"Aye Captain"

With the crew doing what they did best, the only thing he could do was stand back and watch as the Reckoning reached her 'berth' while the customary defense systems were engaged, shielding at ten percent and passive detectors feeling for any kind of probing signal or hostile attack.

"The ship next to us has powered up its close range cannons, targeting systems have not been engaged yet."

Carter scowled as he took notice of this development as he watched the monitors for a full minute before he decided his next course of action.

"Liza, send a message to the commander of that ship to power down his cannons before I send a boarding party over there to do it for him."

"Her. Records indicate that the commanding officer currently in charge is female." Liza responded as Carter rolled his eyes.

"You already hacked their firewalls and brought up a complete crew manifest?" Carter shook his head, "That itself is considered an act of war."

"Please, I find a game of chess more demanding than breaking through their security and disabling their targeting systems," Liza chuckled as a monitor beeped, "looks like the reply has already been sent and weapon systems are cooling down."

"Have the first shift of the crew report to the hangar deck for port call."

"Already done sir, shall I send Echo Team to act as security?"

"Don't bother, wake up Matthews and tell him that he has first port call security, that way if we have any trouble, we can get it out of the way early."

"Affirmative sir, sending the one individual on this ship that hates port calls with an unrivaled passion orders directly from the Captain that he is too report immediately to the hangar bay so that he may depart for port call security."

"Liza?"

"Yes Captain?"

"Shut up."

Chad grumbled heavily once his omni-tool sent him the message as he climbed out of his rack and headed for the bathroom inside of his own quarters to get somewhat presentable to show his face outside. Granted he would be sealed up in his heavy armor where no one would be able to see him roll his eyes or sigh in annoyance while he followed a group of the regular crew around to act as a roving security guard, but then again it gave him something to do.

With the shower out of the way, he donned a body suit to wear underneath his armor as he walked across his room and punched in the combination to open his equipment locker and started pulling out his armor in segments.

The Orin Heavy Assault Armor brought the best of armor plating and shield generator technology together in one single package that could be worn without hindering the user too much, but in his case it felt like a second skin. Years ahead of typical heavy armors found in Citadel space, like the rest of his equipment, it had a scanning countermeasure so no one could simply get specs or decent omni-tool readings off his stuff unless he disabled that particular feature. The armor plating covered the head, neck, shoulders, arms, torso, back, groin, thighs, legs and feet in standard reactive armor plating simply known as FE-II, resistant to small arms smaller than an assault rifle round, but it would fail under sustained fire after a while. He had installed ablative coating over the armor plating for additional protection that was a type of armor associated with ship armor. If it was good enough to be placed on state of the art multi-billion credit ships, then he figured it would be perfectly alright to install into his own armor, granted it weighed three times as much a regular suit of armor would weigh, but his augmented strength made it easy to wear.

With three slots to install upgrade mods on the suit, Chad had added a shield interface unit coupled with the most powerful shield regenerator he could get his hands on that would reduce recharge time while boosting the damage resistance of his kinetic shielding. The last upgrade mod was a top secret state of the art tactical cloaking interface that did more than give his suit of armor the Invisible Man effect. It was able to hide all heat and signal emissions from his suit for a short duration of time, more effective than other cloaking systems that a few races had been able to implement, but a single IR scanner could easily spot them, not so much with the one Chad had.

With a knack of tinkering with things and lots of free time on his hands, Chad had built his own customized HUD, a program he patented back on New Haven so credits were not an issue for him after he had landed a large contract with COM to implement his designs into future systems. It did all the usual things, health monitor, motion sensor display, shield bar, weapon equipped information, additional grenade interface, targeting sensor, range finder, vision magnification and IFF system. His particular improvements added IR, VISR, low light spectrum vision, IFF location tracker, waypoint interface, hostile target designator, weapon system identification programs, audio/video feed recording device, automatic translator software for both verbal and written languages, threat assessment programs, temperature sensors, air purity equipment and advanced environmental suit controls.

It was known as the Titan System, the first of several prototypes he had submitted to the COM for review and testing and he had installed into just about every helmet system on the ship, granted it was all heavily encrypted and would delete itself once it detected hacking attempts to avoid having the system compromised.

His armor color scheme was all black with a dark blue tinted visor, his left shoulder armor plate bore the insignia of the COM Trooper 178th Expeditionary Fleet Force and his medical information, blood type, sex, age and a barcode reading for his personal information was on his right shoulder. Aside from that he had his name and rank located on the forehead portion of his helmet engraved in the metal plate so he could be easily identified in the event he was unable to respond. No other distinguishable markings were visible on his armor, aside from the rare ding and scuff marks that showed it had been used recently, Chad liked to keep his armor in good condition and finished putting everything on without any real difficulty.

The omni-tool on his left arm was a twin to the one on his right forearm, he just wanted to make sure he would never be without a decent omni-tool in the event he lost one. They were Savant Masterminds MK X COM manufactured omni-tools that ran circles around any other known omni-tool in the galaxy, unfortunately they each cost more than a Kowloon freighter loaded with raw minerals and that was polite pricing because he had gotten a discount, anyone trying to buy on would need really deep pockets or good connections. He had every possible program downloaded on his omni-tools, including a few that were not publicly advertised, along with updated codex information and every known schematic known to the Council races, as well as a few that weren't. After running a diagnostics check on both of them, noticing that he still had eight capsules of omni-gel per omni-tool, not that he would need because of his regeneration factor, but it paid to have plenty of medical supplies on hand.

Once his omni-tools were secured and active, Chad began loading his equipment pouches with his usual mix of a dozen standard grenades, four flashbangs mods, two EMP mods and two non-lethal smoke grenades in the belt pouches on his waist. Next went the two pouches containing blocks of blasting charges with a handful of detonators, two large combat knives, one on each side of his collarbone to he could grab one with either hand and then to polish the rest of his equipment off, he had a medical pouch loaded with ten capsules of medical-gel, four vials of antibiotic drugs, a dozen combat stimulants and two vials of suppressants in the event he needed to drug someone without killing them.

Next were his weapons, each and every single one of them completely unique because he had built them himself from the ground up, of course he had a vast collection of spares to go with the extra sets of armor he had in his room as well.

First he pulled out his sidearm, a larger version of any pistol grade weapon that he modified with the sole intention of making it a one handed cannon capable of knocking a hostile target on its ass with one shot. It had a longer barrel, the heat sinks lined both sides and the underside of the barrel in a revolutionary design concept to provide maximum heat removal, a feature in every single weapon he had. It looked like a submachine gun, but it fired a trio of rounds with every pull of the trigger so fast recoil registered one shot, that particular feature was made with knocking out shields as fast as possible. He could get thirty-two shots off before it overheated and had to wait fifteen seconds to dump the excessive heat the old fashion way, granted it would burn anyone holding onto the barrel, so that was why he toned down the damage output upgrade so he could easily manage the weapon one handed. For his pistol he had a hybrid warp/radioactive ammo mod that would result in hopefully outright killing or wounding his target so he could reach a larger weapon.

The sidearm went onto the magnetic strip on his right thigh, positioned just right so he could easily grad and draw the weapon in one fluid motion, which he practiced a few times before he reached into the depths of his locker to pull out his next weapon.

His idea of a submachine gun was a cut down assault rifle in some people's opinion, granted it was smaller than a regular assault rifle, the recoil was manageable to keep it on target and that was about it. It was a temperamental weapon that could overheat after firing seventy-four rounds in less than five seconds, something few weapons could do, such a high rate of fire lowered the effective range to around a hundred meters, but the recoil upgrade allowed him to get a few more meters out of it. The hybrid ammo mod was a mix between tungsten/phasic ammo mods that would take down just about any shield and underlying armor on just about any target as he checked the weapon for proper function, without discharging it in his room of course, and stowed the weapon on his left thigh.

Next came his first combo weapon, he had designed a shotgun system with the terms 'close quarters engagement' and 'overkill' in mind as the aftermath was a shotgun straight from Hell that would make a Krogan sit up and pay attention. It was a double barreled affair, both separate systems had been modified with penetration upgrades, the one on the left fired a hybrid armor piercing/incendiary while the one on the right fired a hybrid chemical/high impact ammo mod that was utterly devastating. If that wasn't terrifying enough, Chad had gotten downright evil when he mounted a prototype plasma based flamethrower on the underside of the shotgun platform itself, unleashing a torrent of plasma napalm that could bypass shields themselves and adhere to protective layers and start cooking the victim-er target alive. The shotgun could fire six shots before overheating and he had a ten second burst from the flamethrower before it had to recharge. Almost as an afterthought he had mounted a large bayonet on the weapon, that way if he needed to stab something, after blasting it into a pile of goop and burning it to ashes, he had one handy.

The monstrosity he called a shotgun/flamethrower hybrid went across the small of his back above his medical pack, handle to the right side of his body so he could easily reach it after he did a weapon check of it before he reached into the locker to pull out the next weapon in line.

Calling it a sniper rifle was akin to comparing a Salarian to a Krogan hopped up on steroids, fully extended it was nearly long as he was tall, the heat sinks ran the length of the weapon, making it heavier than a rocket launcher. It was more of an anti-material rifle than a legitimate sniper rifle, but then again the anti-armor/sledgehammer hybrid round was meant to punch through armor plating after demolishing the shields first. Recoil was a real bitch though, he had swapped out the recoil dampener for the range upgrade because it really didn't make that much of a difference anyway, but he could three rounds off before the overheat function would kick in.

Even compacted it was longer that a fully extended assault rifle and went on the left side of his back, taking up the entire magnetic rail as after he extended it twice to point it in the direction of the bulkhead to see how the optic system had extended as well before he reached into the locker to pull out his next weapon.

It was a combo weapon, mating an assault rifle and a grenade launcher, something that had been done back on Earth for decades in typical warfare. The assault rifle was encased in heat sinks to allow prolonged periods of sustained fire, roughly eighty-two shots before overheat kicked in, as the power upgrade gave the weapon a little bit more punch to each hit while he alternated between several different types of ammo, but for now he slid a hybrid shredder/proton ammo mod before he checked the under slung grenade launcher. It was pretty much an amped up shotgun firing carnage shots, one every twenty seconds, range was ideal for such a weapon as it dumped excessive heat after every shot as well, he had it modified with a high explosive ammo mod. Because he liked the idea of getting up close and personal, he had mounted another bayonet, right next to the flashlight mount, granted he would have to hit another button to extend it, unlike the one on his shotgun/flamethrower that extended the second he extended the weapon.

Rather than scare the shit out of everyone on the ship, he stowed the weapon over his right shoulder next to the sniper rifle and then reached into his locker one last time to pull out the last weapon he would take with him.

The combat machete he had built was heavy enough to be a claymore, even though the blade was just two feet long. It sported a reinforced blade to survive the beating he typically heaped onto a blade, he had shoved a blade through a slaver, armor and all and nearly broke it in half, that happened after he shoved it under the head plate of a Krogan, so he needed a weapon that reflected the fact he liked to get nice and close and dismember opponents.

It went into a scabbard that stuck to the magnetic strip running down the middle of his back where he would normally stow a larger support weapon, but because he wasn't expecting a warzone on the Citadel it would be wise to leave it on the ship.

"Sergeant Matthews, report to the Hangar Bay for departure, Sergeant Matthews report to the Hangar Bay for departure." The ship wide public announcement system blared as Chad grabbed his helmet and left his quarters at a trot as he grumbled to himself.

A quick trip in the elevator leading up to the Hangar Bay revealed that the shuttles were waiting for him as he walked over to the nearest shuttle and climbed in, knowing that he was going catch Hell as he claimed the seat closest to the hatch.

"About damn time Sarge," Chad looked over at one of the familiar crew members, Tech Specialist Trooper Richard Hale, "any longer and we would've lost our shore leave."

"Big deal, you have plenty of time to chase strippers and lose all of your money," Chad made a show of looking at his omni-tool, "in an hour you'll be begging me to borrow a couple credits."

Laughter up and down the shuttle as Hale did his best to come up a decent comeback as Chad took the time to examine each member of the crew.

Modular armor and a single weapon was mandatory, but he saw the occasional suit of light armor or the additional firepower, a few had a submachine gun or a low key shotgun as a backup weapon, a few carried flashbangs, most of them carried batons and he smiled when he saw that most of the female members of the crew were armed with knives worn in plain sight. A couple of the Troopers were wearing Medium armor and packing assault rifles, everyone knew that getting absolutely trashed could be done on the ship after they were underway, so this was mostly a sightseeing and souvenir hunting trip than it was a club crawling spree.

"Take off in three minutes." Liza chirped over the intercom as everyone started buckling themselves into the nearest seat as Chad simply swung the harness bar down over his torso and engaged the locks, holding onto his helmet for now.

While the shuttle was enroute to the docking station, Chad uploaded the personnel identification transponder signals of everyone on the shuttle, giving him a total of twenty-four people to be in charge of. It turned up being groups of six and he was in the one group comprised of the females who were not Troopers, simply because he was the most senior NCO on the shuttle and anyone would rather mess with a typical crew member than a recognized member of the Troopers.

Maybe today would be a simple get in get out day so he could get back to his room and pass the time working on his projects.

Then again he should have never tempted fate.

The display image of the COM Reckoning was enlarged on the view screen for the entire congregation assembled to see as the delegates of various races sat on and watched the podium for now as the three Councilors debated what was to be done.

"This ship will be the first to embark on a mission to explore the galaxy as the first of their species with superior technology," Councilor Trevor, the leader of the Turain Hierarchy, spoke first as the Asari Councilor, gave him a withering look, "it has been decided that Council Spectres be sent along with them to watch and monitor them for safety concerns."

"We all know that you want to place spies to hopefully glean vital information and technology from them," The COM ambassador stood up with a scowl on his face, "how would you feel if we decided to send troops onto your dreadnaughts Councilor?"

"Silence, it has passed a majority vote and it is more for their own protection than espionage," Trevor replied as other members of the committee agreed, "such a young species new to the galaxy will be confronted with dangers not typically found elsewhere."

"Not when the Ghost of Rakka is onboard they won't," a content smirk plastered the face of another COM delegate as the entire chamber went silent at those words, "we have a decent sized contingent of troopers onboard as well, so protection isn't needed."

"Wouldn't the Ghost of Rakka be retired on New Haven?" The general question was asked as eyes turned to the display against the far wall.

There was a collection of artifacts collected over the years, most of them reflected great battles or victories forged through peace, frozen moments between the first interaction between species and every race had one at the Citadel Chamber to represent.

A single suit of COM issued tactical armor adorned the pedestal, left in the exact same condition it had been found after the battle, striking a simple pose with the same assault rifle the Ghost had used in the battle. If the resulting massacre of six thousand Asari could ever be called a battle, the one shining moment were the actions of Chad Matthews, by all rights a true hero that single-handedly decimated the salvers in prolonged ground combat over a span of several days without rest, aid or quarter. The suit had sixty-three holes shot through the armor, all of them on the front chest plate, shoulders and groin area and not one hole or suit puncture was on the back of the body.

Showing that the warrior who had worn the armor had meet his enemies head on in battle, a fact displayed by the official record of defeated slavers at the base of the pedestal. The helmet and visor itself was heavily damaged as well, leaving the face unprotected after a rocket had blown most of it off, documented on the citation near the base of the display, it had happened on the first day of the assault. Hanging around the shoulders of the armor was a wreath of delicate metal rings that created the illusion of real flowers, cleverly intertwined into the wreath were seventeen COM Trooper issued dog tags bearing the names of the men and women who had died in the squad of brave Troopers when they had landed on Rakka. It was speculated that the man who was known as the Ghost of Rakka had gone into a blood rage over the loss of his comrades, rather than sheer heroic actions that everyone thought, but then again few people thought that Chad Matthews had gone seeking glory on Rakka. Most of the damage to the suit had been left alone, the greaves had been cracked in places, both elbow pads were chipped, the chest plate had a nasty gash that almost broke it in half across the center, the collar attaching the helmet to the rest of the suit was barely holding it together, the gauntlet on the left arm was shattered long ago from a deflected rocket and most of the right thigh armor plate had been perforated by a close range shotgun blast that should have amputated the limb.

Many had wondered why the Mutants had chosen this particular monument, until one looked behind the suit of armor and noticed the statues huddled behind it, an Asari clutching a child to her bosom, a Turain cradling a wounded limb while a Salarian kneeled behind with a pistol and knife in hand. All of the statues where crouched behind the armor like they were expecting to duck enemy fire, an image near the rear of the pedestal showed the exact real-life image captured in the heat of battle. Anyone who looked at the display would realize that Mutants were not hostile to anyone they considered an ally or friend, but would stand firmly in place in the event of confronting an enemy.

"You expect a man capable of causing that much destruction and death to happily retire?" The Asari Councilor shook her head as she waved a hand towards the display.

"He is a warrior through and through, he'll retire when he dies on a field of battle worthy of mention," another Asari delegate said as she cast a longing look towards the display, "from the suit's onboard computer we know his heart stopped six times and his body sustained devastating damage that would have killed any creature alive, so to think of him as merely a man is understating his potential."

She paused for a moment before giving the COM ambassador a level look, "Of course he had fine teachers."

"Yes we understand the implications to make him a Council sanctioned Spectre would be mostly honorary in title, but due to the fact of unwillingness to share vital technology," Trevor shot a glare at the COM ambassador, "that however will not come to pass."

The COM ambassador waited a moment to respond as he checked the incoming message on his omni-tool, a smile broke across his face as he showed the message to the other COM delegates as Councilor Trevor got tired of being ignored.

"Is there something the matter sir?" A thinly veiled tone of contempt was hidden from his voice as COM ambassador looked up with a grin and took a hit on a large cigar.

"It seems the Ghost himself is approaching the Citadel," the ambassador turned to his trusted delegate, "remind me to buy the kid a drink will ya Victor?"

The other delegate chuckled darkly as claws traced a pattern on the arm of his chair, "Hell, I owe him more than a drink Jimmy, being one of his mentors has gotten me laid more in the last year than it has in the last century."

"Hope the kid brought some new armor because once this hits the news, he'll be getting mobbed." The ambassador chuckled as he sent a message out on his omni-tool.

"The Ghost on the station ladies and gentlemen, wonder how long it'll be before he gets into a firefight."

"I wouldn't put credits down against him, be a fool's wager."

"Got a hundred here says he lasts four hours."

"Alright, your on."

Chad sealed his helmet on after the shuttle touched down on the landing pad as the hatch opened with a hiss and disengaged the harness holding him into the seat, glad it was off as he got to his feet and stepped out first, standing off to the side to wait for the crowd to migrate in the direction of the public transit shuttle station as he accounted for his six charges.

He had been to the Citadel before and they hadn't, making him their impromptu tour guide and protector as they hailed a shuttle and headed straight for the markets to browse the shops.

It never failed, no matter what species, in any galaxy, women had the shopping gene that was right next to the nag gene and the gossip gene, apparently they could do all three at the same time, leaving Chad with a bunch of excited women in several stores that had never seen Mutants before. Making sure his helmet stayed on to hide his face, he staked out a particular corner where he could watch both the front entrance and the gang of women who decided that clothes shopping could be pulled off, even though most of the outfits were rated for Asari.

Five hours, seventeen different shops and a lot of strange looks later, they were traveling across the markets with Chad bringing up the rear as the mob of women armed with shopping bags, receipts and credits to burn when his audio sensors picked up a scream and pinpointed the direction in which it came from.

He pivoted on one foot and looked in the direction of the scream, knowing that it had been somewhat amplified by a loudspeaker as he spotted a disturbance near the entrance of an alley two levels down. He watched two Turains drag a figure, obviously female from the mammary glands because all he saw was a visor instead of a face, into the depths of the alley as he ran a search parameters for the outfits they were both wearing, making sure it didn't match the Citadel Security uniform or Council Guards. When the search came back negative, he glanced at his omni-tool to see that the colors matched the pair of Turains with a gang called Blue Suns as his blood ran cold.

He had fought them on Rakka before and yet here they were traipsing around the Citadel dragging women into dark alleys, after delivering a vicious pistol whip to face to get her to stop screaming as he stood there a for full three seconds, during that time the crew members noticed that he wasn't moving.

"Uh Sergeant," He turned to look at the first one tapping his visor as he noticed that the rest of them were gathered around him looking at him with looks of concern, "Are you alright sir?"

"Get C-Sec and let them know an assault is going down," Chad said as he pulled his rifle off his back and extended it, "I'll meet you back at the transport hub."

"What are you….."

Chad didn't bother answering as he simply vaulted the railing one handed, feeling the metal bar bend under his weight as he found himself falling into thin air with his assault rifle tucked into his shoulder as he made sure he wasn't going to land on anyone. The bone jarring thud signified his landing one level below where he had just jumped from, startling the pedestrians as fragments of stone and metal broke from the floor as he simply took six steps and vaulted the next railing to get down another level as Asari and Turains alike gaped at him.

He nearly flattened a Volus as the portly figure backpedaled suddenly and found himself sitting on the ground with a black armored giant standing in a small depression before the giant promptly stood up and ran off in a different direction.

"What…(gasp)…was that? (gasp)"

He was already on the move as he com unit exploded in his ears, apparently the crew members he had been escorting thought he was either ditching them or about to commit murder, not if he couldn't help as he noticed that two of them followed the same route he had taken, something about providing back up.

Assorted races simply stepped out of the way when they saw a black armored giant holding an assault rifle running at top speed, aside from the obvious fact that it was taller than anything they had ever seen, something about the visor and assorted weapons made them realize it would be best to get out way. Several Turains dressed in a similar garb, Turain Navy uniforms, gawked as the massive being jumped over an elcor without as so much as breaking stride as they waited for a full minute before a pair of smaller females, obviously recognized as Mutants, armed with smaller weapons as they ran after the armored giant.

Chad rounded the corner into the alley and spotted the trio near the opposite end of the alley, the obvious female putting a decent struggle as her abductors dragged her closer to a waiting transport as Chad charged at top speed.

The female spotted him as she struggled that much harder as the first Turain pistol whipped her again before pulling out a knife and plunging it into her ribcage.

Chad vaguely remembered lifting his rifle up and snapping off three quick shots at that particular Turain, watching with satisfaction as parts of the head exploded under the impacts, making the second Turain release the now injured female as he spun around, reaching for a pistol when he took in the sight approaching him.

He had about a second and a half to realize that whatever the being was, aside from the obvious fact that it was big, covered in black armor and moving really fast when an armored foot reared back and planted itself in the center of his chest. It was common knowledge that turains had metallic skins that were resilient to typical injuries that other races were capable of suffering, but shock registered when the armored foot crushed his chest and directed the applied physics of when an object remains in motion and strikes a stationary object.

Knowing that he had been running at top speed, Chad had actually jumped backwards, as well as up to plant his size twenty-four boot into the second turain that had been reaching for a weapon, narrowing his eyes when he watched the slaver fly backwards like he had a jetpack strapped to his chest, slamming into the transport parked at the end of the alley with enough force to leave a large dent and a bloody smear.

By now he noticed the female huddled on the ground, curled up in a fetal position clutching onto the knife sticking of her stomach, well what he figured would pass for her stomach as he dropped to one knee next to her and activated his omni-tool.

"Bot," he ordered out loud, though his external speakers had been cut, "run a database check on this particular race, give me the highlights."

_"__Affirmative. Subject is Quarian. Female. Twenty-two years old. Warning. Damage to organic subject from impalement. Alert. Quarian immune system incapable of combating typical airborne contagions. Recommend removing weapon and sealing suit to avoid further contamination. Sensors indicate subject does not have sufficient antibiotics to properly immunize itself."_

Bot was another part of his HUD upgrade, it was in a sense a dumb AI that could do menial tasks such as these to free the operator, Chad had installed this particular system after a moment of inspiration had struck him a couple weeks ago. It could also notify him of important details or response to anyone if he was unable, but he had set it on standby mode due to the fact that Citadel races distrusted any kind of artificial intelligence and the last thing he wanted was to have to explain why his suit had one.

He inserted two doses of medical-gel to her omni-tool so her suit internal processors could disperse it before he reached into his medical pouch and pulled out a single antibiotic and a stimulant.

"I need you to let go," Chad spoke clearly after he heard pounding footsteps behind him, "I'm here to help."

Because his HUD told him that a pair of Reckoning crew members were approaching his position, he wasn't worried as he pulled the blade out, jabbed the antibiotics syringe into her shoulder and gently placed a suit seal patch over the hole before he popped the stimulant syringe into her leg.

"Bot," Chad spoke as he made sure both of her would-be abductors were dead, "locate the nearest medical facility capable of providing aid to Quarians."

_"__Affirmative. Search results from local directory show negative results. Widening search parameters. There are no medical facilities rated for Quarians on this station. Nearest medical facility capable of providing medical aid to Quarians is onboard COM ship Reckoning. Recommend haste to deliver Quarian to proper medical facilities. Scans indicate subject will expire in four standard hours unless medical attention is administered."_

"What kind of station doesn't have a hospital for Quarians?" Chad scowled as he patted the Quarian on the shoulder gently to comfort her.

"Bot, see if you can establish a line of communication with her."

_"__Affirmative. Error. Scans show that external speakers and audio receptors have been damaged on subject. Due to incapacitated nature it would appear that the subject will be unable to communicate with Sergeant Matthews."_

Crap, he mused as he turned to look at one of the crew members panting as she took in the entire scene as her partner quickly secured the loose weapons and omni-tools from the dead turains.

"She needs medical attention on the Reckoning, something about her immune system being vulnerable to airborne contagions," Chad shrugged as he gently scooped her up in his arms, putting her injured side away from his body as he noticed the broken speaker port dangling out of her helmet, "her speakers have also been disabled so she can't speak with us."

"Hold on," Chad waited as she typed a message into her omni-tool and then showed it to the Quarian, "We'll see if she can understand us at least."

After a second the helmet nodded up and down as Chad started walking again, cradling the wounded Quarian so she wouldn't aggravate her injury while the three of them quickly left the scene of the crime and headed for the nearest elevator that would take them to the transport hub.

"Are you still awake miss?" Chad asked the crowd parted before them at the strange scene of a Quarian being carried around by an armored giant as they stepped into the elevator with the rest of his group.

Through the visor he was able to see a set of silver orbs change in size, eyes he realized, as her head nodded again as one of the crew reached over and applied another dose of medical-gel.

"Do something to let us know you are awake, okay sweetie?" She asked as she fiddled with her omni-tool to take a scan of the injured area as the Quarian tilted her head before drumming her three fingers against his chest plate in a repeating manner.

"What is the damage?" Chad asked as the crew member, a part of the medical staff no doubt with the Red Cross armband on her left arm as she started working on her omni-tool, mixing stuff together.

"Missed her heart, stomach, intestines and what I think are her kidneys," she furrowed her brows in concentration as she pulled a syringe out of her omni-tool interface, "the knife nicked her lungs but the gel took care of most of the damage, it's the foreign material in her bloodstream that worries me."

"Anything you can do about it doc?"

She sighed, "I'm giving her one Hell of a dose of antibiotics that should isolate the damage and keep her stable before her body goes into shock."

The Quarian tightened her grip on his arm once the needle was applied to her thigh, the best place to inject her for now as Chad patiently waited for the elevator for hurry up reach the transport hub while she went limp in his arms again, her fingers still beating the familiar rhythm on his arm.

_"__Observation. Subject is becoming fatigued from medical stimulants. Warning. Subject on the verge of becoming unconscious. Recommend elevating head and engaging subject in active conversation. Error. Subject unable to communicate. Sergeant Matthews should talk to subject to force mental thought processes."_

Chad shifted her in his arms carefully, tilting her body into his chest as he freed his left arm and took off his helmet, mostly so he didn't have to listen to Bot ramble on as he attached his helmet to the magnetic strip on his hip as he gently lowered the Quarian back into the cradle of his arms.

The response was instantaneous as her head snapped in the direction of his face as her hand reached up to touch his chin. It retreated slightly when he looked down at her and raised an eyebrow, seeing his own reflection in her visor as she reached up and traced the edge of his jaw with a single finger.

"That is so cute," one of the crew members spoke up while Chad didn't so much as flinch as the Quarian reached up and twiddled a few strands of his hair between her fingers gently, "do you get that often?"

"More than you'd think."

Chad watched as she lowered her hand to gently grasp the side of his face as her thumb peeled his bottom lip down to reveal his canines, he locked eyes with her and smiled, showing a mouthful of teeth. His silver hair was on end and his golden cat eyes gleamed back at him from the reflection of her visor before her hand dropped to his shoulder as her helmet hit his chest plate with a soft clink, her breathing appeared labored as her other hand kept up the tapping rhythm.

The elevator door chimed open as he looked up and started walked towards the nearest transit station as he purposely ignored the looks of awe in his direction, apparently he should have left his helmet on because if nobody knew his face, then they would recognize his unique hair color without a problem as he increased his speed.

"Get us a transport back to the shuttle as fast as possible," Chad ordered as he noticed that the Quarian had stopped tapping his arm, "uh doc, we have a problem!"

Chad stood still as the medic began working on her omni-tool as he wished he had left his helmet so he could access Bot, but simply waited until another stimulant was jabbed into her thigh as she jolted awake, clutching her injured side as Chad shifted her in his arms to put her head on his shoulder as a transport arrived and they stepped on.

Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar knew that her day couldn't get stranger, after realizing that all of her credits had been stolen her first day on the Citadel over a week ago things had gotten worse. After that it had been her running around avoiding sleazy traders while trying to survive on whatever she could find or pay for. Then she had been chased by a bunch of slavers across the Lower Market district before they had cornered her and dragged her towards the waiting shuttle to take her off to who knew where.

She had fought back, only to be struck across the face, breaking her speakers before she fought back even harder, knowing that she was going to see her mother and father again, she wanted to see her sister again when she saw it.

Framed against the light on the other end of the alley was a tall…..mech for a better lack of a word as it moved towards her, she was confused to see such a mech move that fast and it had a weapon. Odd. If it had been on the Fleet it would have been scrapped faster than a varren on a fresh kill as she tried to escape the hold the Turain had on her as he struck her again before she felt something puncture her suit and plunged into her chest.

Nika had been stabbed before, but never with anything so big as she realized that it was a knife sticking out her rib cage as she noticed one of her attackers drop to the ground next to her, headless.

In her position she watched as the mech collided with the second Turain in a second, kicking the vile Turain out of her line of sight, flattening a great deal of its armored chest from what she could see as she gasped for breath.

_Keelah, _this was not how she wanted to die, stabbed in an alley on the Citadel with nothing of value on here save for a barely functional omni-tool filled with recorded memories of her family as she curled up into a ball, whimpering at the pain.

She watched as a massive limb covered in black plating appear in her field of vision as she watched the mech stow the weapon on its shoulder and pull something off its utility belt.

Strange that a mech would carry such equipment as she realized that her audio sensors were not functioning either as she felt the ground next to her shake when the mech dropped to one knee and reached for her.

Before she could jerk away, the mech placed two doses of medical-gel into her omni-tool interface and then retrieved something from its utility belt as the numbing sensation of the drug swept through her body, leaving her calmer than she normally would if a mech of this size had approached her. It was after it pulled out the knife that she noticed it had more than three digits per hand, which confused her as the brief pain in her shoulder and leg barely registered.

_Why five digits? _She wondered before another shape appeared next to the mech, for a second she thought it was an Asari before she noticed several differences.

It was a different color and had long strands of fibers hanging off the top of its head, hair she realized as she knew what this newcomer was, a Mutant.

A female from the obvious mammary assets, as she spoke to the mech and then looked down at her, a second one moved past the first and headed in the direction of what she assumed were the dead slavers, if the Mutants were this helpful to Quarians, then maybe there was hope.

Nika nearly lashed out when a pair of armored arms gently scooped her up as she found herself several feet off the ground, bridal style by the massive mech.

If it wasn't taking obvious care of her injury she would have been contemplating about dismantling it and tossing parts everywhere, but for now she simply remained as limp as possible before one of the Mutants reached over with a lit omni-tool decorating her left arm as she showed it to Nika.

**We are taking you to get medical help, nod if you understand.**

It took a moment for her automated translator software to reconfigure the message into any language she could understand before she looked up at the Mutant and nodded her head.

There wasn't a single clean room environment in the entire Citadel she could ever afford to even walk into, much less pay for advanced medical services, it was then she noticed that her suit was displaying that her internal health monitor told her that she had been given antibiotics, as well as a chemical that accelerated her heart rate and threw her whole perception into a sharper focus, as the mech started walking carefully to avoid jostling her.

The Mutants led the way to the nearest elevator as Nika thought about how short the females were next to the mech following them into the elevator as she noticed four other Mutants, all female crowded around inside as well, armed and toting bags covered in logos from various shops around the markets as a different Mutant reached over with a lit omni-tool and ran some kind of scan over her. Why they were helping her confused her as she watched another syringe poke her in the leg, it hurt, but a few seconds later the soothing effect of the drug was powerful as she realized that she was drumming her fingers on the arm of the mech, a nervous twitch she developed whenever she had to resist the urge to dismantle something.

She felt herself being shifted as she remained limb and breathed shallowly to avoid agitating her injury before she was lowered back into the cradle of the arms when she looked up.

_It wasn't a mech._

Nika watched in awe as the head and face above her appeared alien, but familiar to the female Mutants, the coloring of the fibers on his head were shiny, silver, a color she had never seen in hair and his head was much larger than any of the females. Then again he towered over everyone in the elevator, she slowly reached up to make sure it wasn't a trick as she felt soft skin under her fingers as the Mutant looked down at her.

A patch of fur above an eye jumped up an inch or two as Nika slowly reached up and gently touched the side of its face before the hair on the top of its head intrigued her. Carefully she rubbed a few strands of hair between her fingers to indulge her curiosity for the moment as she noticed it spoke, without breaking eye contact with her face either as she lowered her hand again. Because she was unfamiliar with Mutant expressions and noticed that the jaw moved, if it wasn't for the broken com unit she would have heard what it sounded like.

She couldn't resist the curious streak in her as she reached up with a single finger and peeled the lip down, wondering if Mutants were herbivore or carnivore by nature. Several pointed teeth greeted her before the Mutant pulled its lips back in a form of smile, definitely a carnivore Nika noted as she lowered her hand away, feeling tired.

She felt her muscles grow weak as her head dropped to the metal plate covering its chest, which seemed kind of flat if it was a female she thought as she felt another prick in her leg and a rush of some unknown drug accelerated her heart as she gasped painfully. Her position was changed as she found herself sitting up higher and cradled gently in the arms as she noticed that she was in a foreign vessel and she had spent her life growing up crawling around every known type of ship, Turain, Asari, Volus, Hanar, Drell, Batarian, Salarian and even a Krogan ship once, but this one was strange to her. It was small, but larger than a typical shuttle her mind told her as another series of pricks were felt in her thigh, she was going to bruise from all the needles pumped into her at this rate as she made an unhappy noise and curled her fingers around the edge of the collar.

Her fingers brushed against soft skin as she lifted her head enough to look at the throat of the Mutant, noticing how it twitched and moved as the Mutant breathed, similar to how her own people did as she tightened her grip when she felt everything start moving. It was then she noticed that the Mutants had sat down in seats and engaged some kind of harness as the Mutant holding her simply sat down, moving her into its lap after a similar harness came down over the shoulders.

Being on a ship soothed her, the Citadel had been a different world than what she was used to after living on ships her entire life so she felt content on this ship, feeling the vibrations of the engines as the ship, well shuttle really, began to pick up speed before it stopped shaking. That meant it was out of the docking bay and in open space, her fingers stopped drumming impatiently as she relaxed, as best as she could with a healing knife wound that would be fine in an hour, but the she could feel her lungs constricting as the germs attacked her immune system. She had never been this sick in her life, most of the time she had felt tired and suffered a runny nose for a few days, but this was enough to kill her, the chances of her ever seeing her family weighed heavily on her mind before she looked up at the Mutant holding her.

A pair of yellow eyes with vertical black pupils stared back at her as an armored hand reached up and grasped the side of her helmet, holding it still as she watched the eyes narrow slightly before the head moved up, the mouth moved and then looked back down as another female appeared in her line of the vision, the one from earlier.

The who appeared to enjoy poking her with needles, Nika tried to scoff at the thought, but they were doing what they could do to help as the drug pumped into her arm this time left her all warm and fuzzy, any more antibiotics and she would be swimming inside this suit as she noticed the Mutant cradling her said something again.

Nika knew it was speaking to her as she furrowed her eyes at the Mutant above her, wishing she could at least hear its voice, the rest of them were female as well, so she assumed that this one was also a female, but she couldn't remember if they were mono-gendered like the Asari or not.

In fact, she couldn't feel anything as she slipped into the comforting arms of the void awaiting her.

"Doc! She went under!" Chad shouted as he felt the shuttle dock with the Reckoning as he disengaged the harness holding him in his seat and stood up carefully, the Quarian now limp in his arms as he waited for the hatch to open and allow him access to the airlock.

Once the decontamination procedure was finished, he found four medical technicians and Doctor Casey awaiting with a specialized stretcher that could cover the patient in a mass effect shield and run a decontamination environment inside to remove any kind of possible germ or disease without spreading it to the rest of the ship between the airlock and the medical bay.

"Give me vitals, get an IV into a vein with non-allergic vitamin supplements and someone tell me why they thought it was good idea to pump her with three doses of combat stimulants." Doctor Casey arched an eyebrow as Chad fought the urge to stand at attention and report to her as he simply got behind the hovering stretcher and pushed it in the direction of the medical bay as the rest of the medical team stayed right alongside it.

Using special gloves to reach through the mass effect shield protecting the Quarian without exposing her to any open air environment as they worked quickly to get the proper medical equipment set up. A small incision was made on the left arm to cut through the suit so an IV could be properly inserted into a vein while heartbeat monitors, respiratory detectors and blood pressure sensors could be adhered directly to the body.

Medical was just far enough away from the shuttle bay to avoid losing it in the event of an explosion or a well-placed attack as the door leading into the medical bay was already open and ready as Chad maneuvered the stretcher into the large medical capsule and stepped out of the way as medical techs rushed in to get to work.

"Sergeant Matthews report to the bridge, Sergeant Matthews report to the bridge."

Chad looked up when he noticed that Liza was hailing him over the com unit as he nodded in the direction of Dr. Casey and took his leave.

Hopefully she wouldn't die, he was curious about her name.

Captain Carter sighed as he terminated the com connection between his bridge console and the COM ambassador on the Citadel Council, dreading the amount of paperwork he was going to have to sort out before they left.

_I should make the kid do it all to let him know how I feel _Carter mused as the ghost of a smile graced his face as the elevator leading up to the bridge opened to reveal the current reason of his discomfort as he glanced at the medical bay reports given by Dr. Casey.

A Quarian. Well that was a new one, given the access to the codex it told them very little about them, a race would built machines that overthrew them and ousted them off the one planet in the entire galaxy that could support them and as a punishment the Council sentenced each and every one of them to living the life of a gypsy, no home to call their own, forever wandering the galaxy in a massive Flotilla of ships that had been scavenged. The weak immune system left them imprisoned inside those suits, or inside clean room environments for the rest of their lives as Carter figured that with the right kind of resources and medical research, the boys back in R&D would come up with something. It was also noted that a Quarian was the most tech savvy race of the whole lot, that and they commanded a massive Flotilla that would put any standing navy to shame.

Aside from the COM Fleet of course, Carter figured that some political wrangling had been done, but knowing how the brass liked making nice with races, it didn't come as a surprise that he was ordered to look into taking the injured Quarian on as part of the crew to be part of the first collaboration effort between their species. Being new to the galaxy meant that they could easily befriend just about damn near anyone, that and anyone with half a heart could relate to the Quarians being considered the bane of the galaxy.

Every Mutant knew the history, regular humans disliked and hated Mutants enough to start a war with the sole intention of wiping them out before the intervention of the Asari, leaving Earth had been the best thing that ever happened to them and woe anyone who thought they were going to oust them out of the one place they belonged because with superior technology and larger warships that could make the Nemesis look like a corvette. Knowing the brass as well as he did, in the near future things would change for the Quarians, likely for the better, but it would take time as he turned to face Sergeant Matthews.

Decorated war hero and lusted after by every known Asari in the galaxy, they would see it as a nice feather in their caps if they ever managed to get him, not to mention the political and social ramifications from being in any kind of relationship would be astronomical. For a brief second he thought about stripping the Sergeant into nothing but a jumpsuit and abandoning him on the Citadel, the sheer amusement from watching that would make up from all paperwork he would have to deal with. Most people thought that Sergeant Matthews was the danger seeking warrior who sought the next conquest to test his skill in battle and claim the glory, but Carter saw him as the kindred spirit, doing nothing more than what his nature dictated he do and that was too fight.

At least he chose a noble cause to apply his talents too, that and the Asari used him as an example of what kind of ally the Mutants could be.

"You know sir, if you wanted, I could come back later after you remembered why you called me to the bridge."

That was also a reason why Carter liked the kid as he turned around and noticed that Sergeant Matthews had stalked across the bridge in half a ton of armor without alerting him, that and the kid had a sense of humor.

"Oh no, I was just thinking about how I was going to put in the report how I was going to discipline you," Carter shot back as a grin across his face, "but it would appear that your old mentors have already decided that fate."

Sergeant Matthews looked confused for a second, "Sir?"

"Guess what my boy? You get to go stand in front of the powers that be yourself," Carter knew his grin had become downright evil as he chuckled darkly, "down there on the Citadel with the Councilors present, looks like you get to wear that uniform you hate so much."

The utter look of horror of fear in the man's face was comical as Sergeant Matthews actually broke out in a sweat as his eyes grew to the size of grenades, "That isn't even funny, even as a joke sir."

Mirthful laughter filled the bridge as Captain Carter of the Reckoning laughed again, "Who said it was a joke son?"


	3. Mutants Effect Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Unwanted Publicly**

There were few things that Chad hated in this universe, his father, the smell of acid, elevator music, the thought of listening to techno music, weak alcohol, being forced to wear a tight bodysuit and uncomfortable boots. None of those things even came close to how much he hated having to wear formal dress uniforms as he resisted the urge to simply shred the bane of existence with his claws and hop back into his armor for this particular meeting, but he had to make nice with the Council.

Had it been anywhere else, he would have been on his way without as so much as a thank you, exactly the way he liked it as he sighed deeply and looked back at the coat jacket waiting for him.

There was no way he would travel anywhere without at least one shield generator, granted the one he was wearing was shaped more like a vest than a belt that had plate inserts to cover most of his vitals as well as a concealed holster for the pistol, knife, four flashbangs and a stun rod he had on his person as well. Not to mention he had created the perfect light armor suit to wear underneath the monkey suit he would much rather burn than even look at, giving him minimal armor plating along his thighs, forearms and groin area that would hopefully deflect enough damage to give him the time to either move out of range or attack.

If anyone wanted him dead, either a close up shotgun blast to the face or even a sniper round to the dome would ruin his day, and worsen his mood, considerably as he checked the pistol. It was a regular unmodified weapon that was small enough to slide into the holster as he checked the size on the jacket and was pleased that it had been tailored to the size and specs he wanted. A quick visit to his equipment locker to retrieve the Scorpion Mk VII submachine gun that was smaller than a typical submachine gun by half, but it would give him some much needed firepower in a close quarters fight as he slipped it into the small of his back before he checked his appearance in the mirror one last time.

He was stalling actually, the coat jacket was still hanging there waiting for him as he slowly stalked across his room and picked up the garment at arms' length to stare at it.

To some it was a badge of honor and pride, the first of a race to wear the medals and ribbons of another race for conduct on the battlefield on another planet against the unconventional threat of slavers attacking. To have earned the highest award of the Asari Republic without dying was considered a great honor, his name would be remembered for centuries in the history books, statues and parks were named after him, but he didn't see it as a badge for anything except suffering.

If anyone asked him, it was a cruel reminder of his mistakes, seventeen men and women of his team had died within minutes of landing on Rakka, but that wasn't what irked him the most. He had lost Nicole and Joseph, his wife and son, in that forsaken Hell, COM having sent dignitaries to Asari held planets for culture adapting, which was a fancy way of saying to introduce Mutants to Asari. His wife worked hand in hand with the temple priestess to run the place, not that Chad ever had a problem with that, it was peaceful there and there wasn't a person alive who didn't like Nicole. Memories of wandering the temple halls with his wife and son after conducting week long training with his squad were some of the best he ever had as he shook away the memories that threatened to sneak out of the corner of his mind.

Nicole had been the only person to ever, as she laughingly put it, "tame the Feral beast" that had been the running joke whenever anyone seen them together, an empathic and a Feral together, most people laughed until they realized that it wasn't a joke. Chad remembered the day he had done what few men would've done, especially Feral mutants in his case, he had submissively bowed to her while offering her a ring, granted she said yes and nine months later, Joseph Cornelius Matthews was born. His son was the second greatest thing that ever happened to him, Nicole obviously being the first, many people, Asari included, noted that he was protective of his pregnant wife and latter his newborn son. Few ever dared to get between him and his cub, a term his Feral nature approved of more than child or son, the few that could were some of the people he had trusted with his own life several times before and many saw them as the perfect little family. Most of the Asari who visited the temple would find that a young male child running around with a vision of Mutant feminine beauty chasing after the child as many believed that the tall brooding male was devoted to them both. Chad remembered the several times he had teased his wife when Asari maidens would flock to her, much to her discomfort that she could sense how they felt about her, which did nothing but stroke his ego.

Four glorious years, Chad wiped away the tears as he regained his composure and snagged the jacket off the back of the chair as he pulled it on, ignoring the mirror as he swiftly zippered and buttoned the jacket without even looking as he pulled on the belt around his waist, buckling it before he pulled the ceremonial sword out of the locker and attached it to the belt. A hold over from the days on Earth, simply allowing officers to wear swords in ceremonies and formal occasions that Chad was granted the honor of being given one, not by the COM, but by the Asari Republic itself in his official award ceremony months after Rakka.

It wasn't a typical sword, it was a cross between a rapier and a blend of Asari weaponry, giving it an almost cutlass appearance that measure out to three feet of light blue steel honed to a razor edge of monofilament edge, sharpest substance in the known galaxy as it clearly had some serious weight to it. The detail craftsmanship down on the blade itself was rivaled only by the artistic designs crafted onto the scabbard and hilt, a delicate blend between Asari and ancient Mutant designs that gave the appearance of being both elegant and dangerous, granted Chad didn't think it would be a good idea to use this weapon in a real fight because it had been presented by the one real person who actually understood how he felt after Rakka.

Matriarch Albania was the one who had sought him after he had been "rescued" by the reinforcements, not that he really cared if they had shown up as he remembered jumping out of the shuttle and running back to the temple to search for his wife and son. She found him locked in one of the inner rooms cradling them in his arms hours after the relief fleet had removed the salver threat, screaming incoherently while tears of pure anguish ran down his face, weapons and armor lay discarded. Her own lifemate had been a dearest friend of Nicole's and it was like losing a sister as she managed to help the distraught Mutant move the bodies of those he loved into caskets to transport them back to New Haven for a proper burial as she helped him through the next few days.

Having mind melded with him to lessen his pain only once, she was the only real person, outside of the telepathic friend who had been concerned about him when he returned to New Haven to lay his wife and son to rest, that really knew what kind of suffering he was going through.

Chad knew he had been distant ever since their deaths, isolating himself from others as he jumped at the chance to join the Reckoning, not to build bridges with other races or explore the secrets of the galaxy, he simply wanted to escape the world he had known and seek the solitude and peace. How wrong he had been, no matter what he destined himself to, fate always had a nifty way of stabbing him in the back as he went over to the locker containing the rest of his uniforms and pull out the hat, looked more like an old Roman Legionnaire helmet in soft white than a real uniform hat. It was the one thing he liked about the uniform, it was comfortable and had a soft leather helm that covered his neck, that and it gave him the appearance of a gladiator of old, which was excellent for him, because people, regardless of race, felt uncomfortable approaching him.

A quick glance at the mirror revealed an image that hardened his heart, black combat boots polished a shine, dark blue trousers with ornate gold and ivory stripes embroidered along the seams, a black sash tied off to the right side of his waist so that three tasseled ends of rope went down to his knee, the gold belt around his waist with the sword hanging off his left hip. From there it was a black jacket with a line of ornate brass buttons up the center, six different medals hung off his chest as the shoulder lapels displayed his rank for all to see as the helmet simply added to the whole effect as he tore his gave from the mirror and back at his locker.

Placed on the top shelf were several holographic projections, captured moments between him and his family as he looked at the pictures of a life he once had and then back at the mirror.

"I'd give all of this up just to see them again for one day," Chad muttered as he made sure the doors to his lockers were sealed before he turned to the door, "onward to the suffering."

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The shuttle ride from the Reckoning was quiet, Captain Carter, himself and two other members of the crew were along for the ride as Chad simply made sure his omni-tool, which earned him a glare from Carter, was synched with the headset piece buried in his ear to make sure the automatic translation software was operational.

He knew for a fact that this was all a show of control and power, if he hadn't been some kind of war hero it would have resulted in his ass getting thrown into the brig for causing such an incident on the Citadel, of all places he needed to start a fight that resulted in the death of two members of another race that didn't like them anyway and it had to be the galactic seat of power.

"Shuttle One coming in for approach on Council Chambers Dock Nine," the loudspeaker blared as Chad stood up and made sure everything was where it needed to be as Captain Carter stood and did the same, "ETA thirty seconds."

"Remember, wave at the pretty Asari, smile at the Turains and play nice for the rest of them," Captain Carter smirked as he brushed something off Chad's shoulder, "that or else just look pissed off enough to scare everyone and we'll be out of here sooner."

"Deal," Chad sighed as he made sure everything was where it needed to be as the shuttle docked and began to cycle the airlock, "I got a bottle of malt on ice back in my room if you want to join for a drink afterwards."

"Sure," Captain Carter suddenly spun around as he arched an eyebrow, "how did you get liquor onboard my ship?"

"Learned it from the best, sir." Chad smirked as Captain Carter simply nodded his head in agreement and shrugged as the hatch swung open.

Chad was glad that only a squad of COM Troopers with the C-Sec colors greeted them at the airlock once they stepped off the shuttle and got onto the elevator the moved about as fast as a drunk Trooper the morning after shore leave. No one said a word as the elevator arrived and deposited them on the lower levels of the Presidium so they were forced to take six flights of stairs packed with assorted races, a majority of them being reporters and adoring fans held back by a small force of efficient C-Sec as Chad simply kept walking, his long strides eating up distance with ease now that he wasn't wearing armor. Three checkpoints later with fewer spectators at each stop, the COM escort peeled off and left them to follow a single Asari guard as the quartet of Mutants followed her to the Council Chambers.

Having been to the Council Chambers before, the awe inspiring sight didn't faze him as much, neither did it bother Captain Carter either as the other two stopped to gawk for a few seconds before they continued on as they reached the landing before the actual Chambers proper.

"This is going to be fun." Chad sarcastically drawled as he waited for the robed Asari to wave them forward as Captain Carter clapped him on the shoulder.

"Buck up son, you're a hero." The words were hollow without meaning as Chad put on his game face and walked up the stairs in perfect synch with Captain Carter next to him as they stepped into the large auditorium packed with hundreds of delegates and the Councilors themselves.

Due to security reason, the podium containing the Councilors was separated by a fifteen foot gap, not that it made any difference to Chad, he could jump twice that distance in his armor as they stopped at the railing and turned to face the COM ambassador and saluted together.

Logan James Creed stood up and answered the salute as his brother Victor Allen Creed simply smiled at them from his seat as they cut their salutes and turned to face the Councilors.

Chad pretty much spaced out as the usual greetings, introductions and general pleasantries were underway as he stood ramrod stiff and simply waited for the usual BS to get over with already as his sense of smell and hearing told him everyone else was either occupied with an omni-tool or they fell asleep. He had to guess roughly thirty or forty delegates per race were present along with a large number of C-Sec and from his peripheral vision, more than a handful of Spectres that were armed to the absolutely teeth with a number of weapons. Another thing he noticed with help from his extra senses was that he had a few snipers hidden in an alcove high above his head were also keeping a bead on him as waited until he was addressed.

Ambassador Creed stood up as he addressed the Council at large, "Greetings, I wish to start the proceedings with the fact that Sergeant Matthews's actions earlier today were the result of nothing more than a case of warranted self-defense in the aid of another sentient being."

"We understand the situation and no action will be taken against Sergeant Matthews for it, in fact we commend him for such gallantry even here on the Citadel," the Turain Councilor spoke, "even if C-Sec had been notified, it was still the right thing to do at the time, but we move onto more pressing concerns."

"Yes," the Asari Councilor spoke next as she bowed her head in greeting, "the venture of this meeting is too decide the appropriate escort that the ship ready to venture out into the Terminus Systems will be allotted by the Council, rather than start a war, it has been decided that several Council Spectres will be appointed to the Reckoning and her crew for protection."

Chad nearly fell down laughing his ass off as he fought for self-control to avoid any kind of response from his person as he thought how stupid this all really sounded, but if the Asari Councilor was doing most of the talking, then it had to be the better solution that what the rest of the Council was considering, but they wouldn't dare send any kind of Council sanctioned ship into the Terminus or else they would spark a total war. Many wanted the COM to send a ship into the Terminus where they would be easy prey to the seedier underbelly of society, some wanted a fight with the newcomers, others wanted to steal COM technology if they had the chance and others were quiet content to just let them wander around.

Spectres, often considered the best of the best and Council's right arm throughout the known galaxy as Chad discreetly took a few whiffs of the air to see if he could catch a familiar scent of one Spectre in particular, one of the few non-Mutants he actually got along with in the time he had known her. Sure enough, he could easily identify the coy scent of one Asari Spectre, Tonya Elegize, one of the few friends Nicole had when they arrived at the temple all those years ago. She had trained with him and his squad for a little more than a year before she had been called away on Spectre business a couple weeks before the slavers attacked, Nicole had named her as an honorary godmother to Joseph and it hurt her to know the child she had come to call one of her own, in the extended family sort of way, had been killed.

Bickering back and forth between commenced as Chad sighed deeply and waited before he was dismissed so he could lose the uniform and hide on the Reckoning until they left port. Hopefully the ship would spend more than a year coasting around the galaxy scanning planets, collect mineral samples and fill in the edges of the blank map of the galaxy while he passed his time in the training room honing his skills so he could return to New Haven and hopefully live the life of a hermit in relative comfort. Years of practice went into play as he remained standing in front of the Councilors without fidgeting as his mind wandered around inside the abysmal vortex of his head as he noticed Captain Carter mutter softly to himself. He wondered how the Quarian was doing, he didn't get the chance to patch Dr. Casey through to his omni-tool, even though it was silent, it would have eased his boredom as he ignored the political crap that went up and over his head before they were addressed.

After another salute and a verbal warning to avoid starting firefights on the Citadel, Chad about faced and quickly marched out of the Council Chambers at a pace that didn't show how anxious he was to be out of that place.

"What did I miss?" Chad asked Captain Carter as they headed for the COM embassy with the COM C-Sec as Captain Carter simply shrugged as he attempted to work the kinks of his neck without much success.

"Let this be a lesson to you," he sighed as he unbuttoned his collar so he could easily roll his head side to side, "don't ever shoot anyone, not criminals, slavers or goddamn single celled organisms on that station, punch them, knock them out, Christ, ask nicely for all I care, no more weapons on the Citadel."

Chad smirked, "I have two firearms, two knives, four non-lethal devices and shields on my person right now."

"Shut up kid."

"Looks like I owe you that drink."

"Give me the bottle and I'll think about ever letting you off the ship again."

"Deal."

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Nika felt warm and surprisingly comfortable, which was a mystery in itself because her suit wasn't that comfortable when laying down, but the pleasant feeling in her veins made her want to roll back over and fall asleep again as she slowly opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. The first thing that stood out to her was that it was too bright, her visor typically blocked seventy-five percent of ambient light but this was too harsh as she blinked several times to let her eyes adjust as she made an important realization that caused her to become fully awake.

She wasn't wearing her mask.

For a moment she looked around completely disoriented, noticing that her entire suit was gone as she looked around. She was inside some strange kind of box that had glass walls, big enough for her to lay on the soft mattress, the simple paper gown she was wearing covered her front as she slowly up, gingerly leaving her left arm alone to avoid ripping out the needle.

Panic slowly raising, she noticed that the box she was in was incredibly sterile as the filtered air tasted a lot cleaner than her own suit filters could make it taste as the white room came into focus as she touched the glass wall of her apparent prison as she looked around for any kind of clue.

It appeared foreign to her as she noticed a line of other glass boxes similar to the one she was in that were empty as the white walls and ceiling gave the room she was in the appearance of being sterile as the equipment and various devices sitting in cabinets gave her the vague impression she was in some kind of medical bay. After looking around she spotted her suit and helmet sitting on a bed across the room from her own box as she felt the tender area where the knife had stabbed her as she moved the paper gown aside to inspect the damage.

What shocked her was that instead of an angry looking wound that would take weeks to heal properly, instead she saw a simple pink scar that was healed quite nicely as she gently probed the injury site experimentally, feeling little pain as she glanced down at her left hip. Evidence of minor bruising was barely there as she checked the rest of her body for any kind of injury, noticing that a few of her older scars had become pink and less pronounced as she tried to think of any race that would A) take care of a Quarian and B) have this kind of medical technology.

Then she remembered what had happened to her earlier, the Mutants, the first ever documented encounter between her race and the mysterious newcomers and here she was in some kind of medical bay any member of her species would give anything to be in and she was put off by the whole place. As much as she tried to remember, the only thing she honestly remembered about the Mutants was that they had some kind of abilities that put biotics to shame and it appeared that they the rumors of them having some seriously advanced tech were true. Engineering and biochemistry were the primary fields of study that Nika had ever truly mastered by Quarian standards, so without knowing what half of the equipment in the medical bay even did left her confused, but there were a few things she recognized or knew what they were for as she wished she at least had her omni-tool so she could get video evidence to take back to the Flotilla.

Most of the symbols and strange markings that she could see made absolutely no sense to her as she fumbled around inside the box for any kind of latch or release handle, knowing that if she was fast enough, she could get her suit back on before the exposure killed her before she noticed that the door opened.

Standing there were three Mutants, two of them had longer hair and mammary assets as the third puzzled her, it was taller and had shorter hair, but it lacked any kind of mammary assets as she tilted her head in puzzlement as the three of them quickly moved over to the box she was in. The first female went over to a cabinet on the wall and was digging through it for something as the other female approached the side of her box and waited as the holographic interface appeared.

Nika watched as the female worked on the interface for a few moments before sound entered her box through the speaker above her head, which caused her to cover to ears with a soft squeal as she tried to understand the sounds. It sounded like barking to her as she realized that the Mutants were talking to each other, watching as their mouths moved as they spoke to one another as the stranger looking one approached her box and knocked on the glass a few times to get her attention.

The first female reached over and slid something into some kind of drawer on the outside of her box as the one waving at her made the motions of picking something up and inserting it onto the side of its head as Nika frowned and wondered what the Mutant was trying to tell her. A soft click and a hiss in front of her made her look down and see a small panel inside her box, between the edge of her padded mattress and the glass wall of the box as she saw some strange looking headset and visor combination as she looked at the three Mutants standing there watching her as she pointed at the device and then her head.

Three heads bobbed up and down as she reached over and picked it up, noticing that one of the females turned sideways and pulled her hair back to show what could only be her ear as soft barking filled her box as Nika pulled hair aside and put the thing on so it fit snug against her ear as the visor portion that covered her right eye flickered on.

"Are you alright?" Nika frowned as she looked back up at the three Mutants standing there watching her.

"Can you hear us?" Nika watched as the female on the left moved her mouth and instead of hearing a barking sound, she could hear the words in her own language after a second delay.

She could understand them as she cleared her throat and looked around, "What happened to me?"

They looked excited as they could hear her speak as well as the three of them backed away from the box she was in and got to work while she could clearly hear a different voice, a deeper tone than the one she heard from the female earlier.

"Sorry about that, you had been stabbed through your suit and the foreign material in your bloodstream was making it hard to stabilize you, so we placed you inside this capsule, no worries it has clean air and advanced decontamination cycles to ensure you are perfectly safe." The larger one with the deeper voice was speaking to her as she listened carefully.

Relived to know that she wasn't going to die without her suit for the moment, Nika nodded her head, "Thank you, just one question."

"Of course, you are a patient aboard the COM Reckoning, whatever we can do to make you more comfortable."

"Actually, are you female?" Nika asked as her fingers twiddled together.

A strange sound filled her ears as she noticed that the pair of obvious females were making a strange sound that sounded like barking as Nika wondered if she had perhaps insulted them as the one she asking the question raised an arm and sent a data packet before the visor over her eye recalibrated and began processing live information as she looked at the figure in front of her. In three seconds she knew that she was staring at a male Mutant as the visor gave her general information at a rate that was faster than her own visor sensors as the visor easily identified the females as such as the visor told her that they were laughing.

"No," he shook his head as a smile, something her visor identified as the showing of his blunted teeth instead of a hostile or aggression, "I understand your curiosity perfectly, if I may ask, what is your name?"

"Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar," Nika bobbed her head, "female obviously."

"I understand, if you would forgive the incident of us removing your suit without consent, it was safer for your equipment to treat you if it was removed," he smiled as he turned to the other females, now finished laughing for now, "I would introduce my colleagues, but they are incapable right now."

He smiled again as he checked the interface on the side of her box, "My name in Harold Casey, everyone calls me Dr. Casey, I am the ship's medical officer and you are under my care for now."

Doctor was a word that translated with no problem as Nika looked around the medical bay, realizing that her visor could identify objects at random as she looked around in awe.

"Such a nice name," one of the females spoke as she stepped closer to the box, "I am an assistant here on the ship, call me Amy and the other one is Melinda."

Nika could scarcely believe her luck, here she was having a conversation with the newest race in the galaxy within minutes of waking up in their medical bay on their ship, using an advanced version of a headset device that could translate what she was saying because Quarians never needed to worry about translator implants because they were always wearing suits. It surprised her that they had her native language on file instead of the galactic standard, which she was frankly terrible at without her helmet settings to help her be understood as she ran around on the Citadel.

"How are you feeling?" Dr. Casey said as his eyebrows furrowed, a sign of concern her visor informed her as he entered a few commands on the interface.

"Fine, I feel a lot better actually, thank you," Nika looked around and noticed that her visor let her know the ambient air temperature as she frowned, "actually, could you increase the temperature, its cold in here?"

Dr. Casey smiled as he hit a few commands and Nika nearly jumped back when another interface appeared inside the box, her visor already translating the strange markings.

"I'll let you be the judge to how you want it, but I have removed the function of the emergency release on your capsule due to the fact that the room is no longer sterilized because we are in here and I don't want you to accidently open it by mistake." Dr. Casey explained as Melinda left the medical bay after her omni-tool beeped.

Climate control, air conditioning, bed elevation, music selection, decontamination cycle command button, communication console, the defunct emergency release option, medical status, entertainment features and what confused Nika the most was the option labeled 'call button' as she tapped the control.

A loud beeping was heard as she looked around frantically for the source of the noise as Dr. Casey smiled again and stepped closer to the box.

"I see you discovered the panic button feature we have for all of our patients, we have a something suitable for you to eat without poisoning yourself on the way, as your doctor I recommend that you rest while you can." He smiled as she nodded her head rapidly as she adjusted the temperature setting to something more comfortable and discovered she could raise the upper half of her bed so she was sitting up slightly.

Amy scooted closer on a wheeled chair as Nika noticed that she had a softer looking smile on her face as she let the interface fade away and looked up.

She noticed that Amy had a different hair color than the others, a lighter gold that shone brightly as Nika realized that her own hair, long black strands running down to the middle of her back as she attempted to tame the wild strands that had a mind of their own.

"Here," Amy said as she reached into her coat pocket and removed something, placing it into the drawer on the side of her box, "this will help."

Nika found a circular piece of material that was soft beneath her fingers as she discovered it stretched as well, confusing her as she stretched the band several time wider than it originally did, amazed that something could do that as she wished she had her omni-tool to scan the material.

"Are you okay?" Nika looked up to see another look of concern on Amy's face as she realized that she had been playing around with the strange device as she felt a blush color her cheeks.

"Uh yes, I don't know what this is and it fascinates me," Nika said as she stretched it and held it up, "what is it?"

"We call it a hair scrunchie," Amy smiled as she did something that freed her hair from the neat ponytail as she shook her head to free her hair, "just watch what I do."

After a quick study of how Amy used the 'hair scrunchie' to tie her hair back away from her face and finding it a lot easier than attempting to braid it, Nika was glad she managed to tame her hair as Amy tilted her head and smiled.

"What?" Nika asked as she patted the hair scrunchie, "Is something wrong?"

"No, no, no," Amy shook her head as she smiled again, "it's just that you have pointy ears, makes you look like an elf."

The last word confused her as Nika reached up and felt her ears to make sure they weren't deformed in anyway as she gave Amy a wondering look, "What is an elf?"

"A long time ago, there were stories of ancient beings out people called elves, they had fair skin and pointed ears," Amy smiled as a soft barking sound filled her ear, laughter again, "you look just like one, I'll have to show you a picture one day."

"At least we have the pointy ear part," Nika cringed as she turned her head away, "few even know what Quarians look like anymore, so I'm sorry if I offend you."

Nika watched as a new look on Amy's face appeared, who knew that Mutants had that kind of control over their facial muscles? It took a moment for the visor to recognize it as a look of surprise as Amy waved her hands rapidly in the air, a gesture that was lost on Nika.

"That isn't what I meant Nika, you look very nice, because we have never met a Quarian before and I'm sorry if I made you feel bad, that wasn't intention!" Nika could recognize that Amy was becoming frantic as a smile tugged at her face.

"It is alright Amy," Nika trilled a sound of laughter, "anyone else would think that Quarians wear suits to find something downright hideous, but it just our weak immune systems that keep us inside our suits."

"Or else you would die if you didn't," Amy replied as she lowered her hands, "we guessed as much and got you into the capsule as fast as we could before we operated on you, so as long as you remain inside there you'll be alright."

"How did you get my suit out of the capsule anyway?" Nika knew that she was warming up to the Mutant as she glanced at the area where the panel had opened and wondered how her helmet even fit in there.

"We have a larger compartment located near your feet for larger items," Amy answered as she tapped a control on the side of her box, which in turn opened said panel as Nika figured that it was easily large enough to accommodate her entire suit and then some, "it was a good thing they got you back to the ship as fast as they did, doesn't the Citadel have medical facilities for Quarians?"

Nika sighed as she almost laughed at the notion of a medical clinic allowing a single Quarian inside to even help, knowing that Amy didn't know the harsh truth as she simply shook her head thinking about how many lives could have saved if the Flotilla had the same kind of medical technology.

"You would find it difficult to locate a place Quarians can actually get help from," Nika twiddled her fingers together as she looked up, "I would rather not talk about it."

"Sore subject, got it, anything else you need?" Amy asked as Nika felt another smile coming on when she noticed that the door leading into the medical bay opened again.

Her heart thundered in her chest as she recognized the individual standing there in the threshold as her visor told her several important things. It was male, tall and Mutant, the same one she had mistaken for a mech earlier in the alley, she felt her throat tighten as he stepped forward, no longer in bulky armor, but some kind of jumpsuit as she looked up higher.

"How is our guest doing doctor?"

The sound of the voice was lower than Dr. Casey, the only other male Nika had met, but it had a throaty sound to it that sent shivers through her as she noticed the way he moved, like a hunter as his eyes snared hers from across the medical bay.

This was someone she wouldn't mind tangling with…..as long as she had enough antibiotics and immune boosters to fill a cruiser on hand once she was done crushing his pelvis.

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Chad could finally remove the uniform as he stepped into his room, shedding the entire thing faster than if he had been wearing something that was on fire as he respectfully hung the garments up in the locker and closed it faster than he should have as he leaned against the locker taking a deep calming breath or some shit like that.

It had been nearly overwhelming as he walked across half of the Citadel to get back to the shuttle taking them back to the ship, random strangers walking up to him and thanking him or cursing him. Reporters and journalists had practically mobbed him the second he stepped outside of the Presidium as Captain Carter took up position behind him to use him as a shield, the clever bastard. Knowing that his uniform stuck out like a glowing reactor in a warehouse packed with crates was one of his problems, the other was that every single being on the Citadel knew he was going to be walking down that particular street as he fought hard to keep his face neutral the entire time.

Granted, he practically bulldozed his way past them as C-Sec did their best to keep most of the crowd back, which didn't amount to much until they got to the transport hub and the COM guards took over. They formed a phalanx three men deep with interlocked elbows and energy shields to stand as a wall at the entrance to the shuttle so the rampaging mob of admirers and haters couldn't physically follow them onto the shuttle that would take them to the dock so they could get onto their own shuttle to take them back to the Reckoning.

He signed two autographs, nodded at a few people, waved three times and smiled once throughout the entire thing as he pushed off from his locker and went to put on something that was more comfortable than that hellish uniform, not that he minded walking around in his own quarters in the buff, but he had errands to run now that he was back on the ship. A broken in jumpsuit, modular shield belt with two holsters, a nice pair of boots and his name patch on both shoulders made him feel better after he took a long cold shower as he left his quarters with a small bag slung over his shoulder.

First he had to deliver something to Captain Carter, namely a bottle of vintage scotch that hadn't been opened yet and a set of shot glasses as he ignored the second port call group heading in the direction of the hangar deck as he took the long way to reach the bridge. He reached the bridge ten minutes after the shuttle departed for the Citadel and noticed that aside from the skeleton bridge crew, Captain Carter was virtually nowhere to be seen as he hopped into the elevator and look it up the Captain's Cabin.

Once the door opened and he stepped through the security checkpoint that monitored his vitals, biometric scanners and whatever technical voodoo that let him enter as he spotted Captain Carter sitting behind his desk with a scowl on his face.

"If it helps sir, I reacted out of instinct rather than compulsive need to dismember and maul said slavers." Chad supplied as he stepped across the room and sat down, gently placing his gift on the edge of the desk.

Captain Carter looked up with a heavy sigh, "What am I supposed to do with you? Leave you locked up on the ship every time we reach port?"

"As long as I don't have to dress up to leave the ship I am fine with that," Chad chuckled as he fished the glasses and bottle out of the bag and set them on the desk in front of him, "now I came through on my end with the drink."

"Soft malt blend whiskey," Captain Carter leveled a glare at him, "you just happen to have my favorite drink?"

"What can I say? Developed a taste for it." Chad answered as he twisted the cap off and poured two drinks and slid the second glass across the desk and lifted his in a form of toast before pounding it down in one gulp.

"Meant to drink slowly you ape," he sighed as he slowly sipped his drink and motioned for another refill, "how are you handling it Matthews, sleeping alright?"

"Oh yeah, sleep just fine until the nightmares wake me up out of a perfectly good sleep," Chad snapped back as he poured another set of drinks and set the bottle down as he glanced at the bottle, "sleeping agents don't help either and neither does alcohol thank God."

Neither one of them said anything as they nursed their second drink for a few minutes in silence before Chad noticed the console next to Captain Carter was flashing a warning that an incoming message.

"Should I leave?" Chad asked after Captain Carter answered it and furrowed his brows.

"No, stay until they get here, seems like our Spectre protectors are here and coming to speak with the both of us," even a deaf man could hear the sarcasm dripping from those words as he checked his console again, "good news is that COM is advising they hand over all devices aside from weapons and they are not allowed anywhere vital on my ship."

"Good, it'll be a few years before we have to worry about our tech leaking out onto the market." Chad rolled his eyes as he poured another set of drinks and capped the bottle for now.

"We can always make better stuff, it's just the idea of a couple Spectres riding along with us, kind of puts a real dampener on our plans."

"Ah yes, our evil plan to slowly take over the galaxy by leaving armies of flash cloned mutants on every planet we visit," Chad laughed for effect as he grinned, "soon we shall control everything on this plane of existence before we move onto the other dimensions!"

"Did anyone give you coffee by chance?"

"No, had a really nice tasting nutrition bar on my way here."

They shared idle conversation back and forth for a few minutes before the elevator opened to reveal three individuals, Chad nearly spewing his drink across the desk as he counted them again.

The good news was that the one Asari in this trio was one he knew well enough to trust, but the Turain and Salarian he didn't know from the Quarian down in the medical bay as the three of them staked out each corner of the cabin with professional looks, a simple slow once over to take in everything and then looking back at the pair of Mutants sitting at the desk.

"Not big on formality, grab a seat." Captain Carter said as he finished his drink and stashed both glasses and the bottle somewhere in his desk before Chad could grab it as he stood up and walked over to a command console to bring up a projection of the Terminus and Council controlled space respectively.

"Now that we are all here," he said as he turned around and sat back down at his desk, "let's set a few ground rules shall we?"

Chad knew that if he was interpreting the facial expressions correctly, then he knew that they were not happy with the fact that Captain Carter was signaling them out as he slid three bracelets across the surface of his desk and looked at them pointedly to get the point across.

"Now, Council authority has overriding rule in most cases, this particular instance is void of any and all Council authority over this ship and crew due to the fact we are technically probationary terms of being an official member of Council space." This was where Chad would normally space out, but he decided to pay attention because he was sitting in a comfy chair.

"While you are on this ship you will have to forfeit omni-tools and any other sensor grade equipment after my own technicians have checked them ourselves when you are onboard this ship, we will set up communication consoles for the remainder of your stay from your quarter you will be assigned. Weapons will be allowed to remain in your possession unless you give me a reason to take them away from you, so never use them to threaten my crew or harm any member of my crew. Stations onboard this ship will be given to you, but as it stands, you will make up a majority of the ground team we send down to survey and sample recovery to avoid scaring someone into firing on us."

This was about the time that Chad wondered if he really passed off as an Asari at 7' 2", if he was in armor at a distance than at first glance he could be one, but up close anyone with eyes would know that something was up as he simply waited.

"We are heading into the Terminus System where Council authority means nothing and rather than leave you confined to quarters for the entire trip, you'll be granted privileges to roam around areas of the ship unsupervised, but due to the sensitive nature of this ship, there are areas you will not be allowed to go, any questions?"

Chad raised his hand like he was back in kindergarten and bounced up and down in his seat as Captain Carter rolled his eyes and sighed, "Anyone else have any questions? No? Then I'll let you introduce yourselves."

The Turain stood up and saluted with military precision that made Chad want to cringe, "Kilvinero Jagther, Turain representative and Council Spectre, glad to be here sir."

Eager hothead with just enough action to be dry behind the ears, but not enough where it counted, probably got his Spectre status through good connections or knowing the right person, that or else he had been in the right place at the right time.

Next was the Salarian, he didn't salute, but held himself rigid as his rapid fire speaking, "Mavoik Grejow, Salarian technician and scientific analyst, happy to have met you Captain Carter, have many questions on the tactics you used in the Battle of Zelda if you are capable of answering them, will understand if you cannot due to regulations and orders from command."

Chatterbox, like a speed Mutant on caffeine, obviously the one who they would have to watch closely due to him being Salarian Task Group operative and being a Spectre meant he had earned the right be one, by using every dirty trick in the book, but he would be useful.

Last was the one Asari Chad knew wouldn't annoy him as she stood up and bowed, "Tonya Elegize, Asari biotics expert and qualified sniper," she turned to give Chad a sorrowful look, "it is good to see you again."

Might be personally biased, but she was alright and had been around since Mutants had been brought from Earth, so she wouldn't be trying to steal something and run off with it, because the Asari Republic already had the Nemesis and a bunch of other stuff.

Because he knew what was coming, Chad stood up and addressed the group, "Sergeant Chad Matthews, leader of any ground team operations and team leader, some of you know of me and I am not the kind of person to reminisce about the old days or answer personal questions, understood?"

The last bit was directed at Mavoik, who had his mouth open and a three fingered hand raised up as his shoulders fell in denial as Chad knew he was already going to have an issue with this guy with the questions as he sat back down.

"If that is all, I have work to do," Captain Carter stood up and shut off the projector as he waved in the direction of the elevator, "Sergeant Matthews will show you to your quarters and let you familiarize yourselves with the areas of the ship you are allowed in, that is all."

Chad walked in the direction of the elevator after giving Captain Carter a crisp salute least he had the Spectres think he was some kind of slob as he activated his omni-tool to remind himself where they were getting placed and hid the surprise when he found out why he was on the one sub deck that had over a dozen empty rooms as he waited for the doors to close.

"No," he said towards Mavoik before the Salarian could even speak as he turned off his omni-tool, "it's a prototype with a lot of kinks to work out of it."

"Just wanted to make the suggestion that it appears to high quality craftsmanship," Mavoik mentioned as he crossed his arms and glanced around the elevator before it dinged, "what areas of the ship are off limits."

"Pretty much anywhere that has a guard standing in front of the door, you have free rein of the Crew Quarters Deck, Recreation, Hangar Bays and anything between Mess Deck and Medical," Chad lead the way out of the elevator and had the three of them follow him, "you'll have private quarters for yourselves and the odds of a curfew being in effect won't happen unless trouble occurs, try to be friendly with the crew, they'll be as curious about you as you will be about them, but don't take it the wrong way if they blow you off."

They reached the Crew Deck and headed to the level containing the quarters provided for them as he slowly looked around, "You won't have a lot of through traffic down here and your closer to Rec Deck, if there any items you want to have during our travels I recommend that you send for it and wait for the techs to finish going over it before you can have it, just don't smuggle any contraband onboard and we won't space you out of the nearest airlock."

Chad stopped by each room he wanted them to have, putting Mavoik and Tonya closer to his room, but he left several empty quarters between them and his room as he gave them a general tour of the ship, giving them tactical headsets to wear around the ship already programed for them to understand Mutant behavior, expressions and language so they wouldn't be unable to communicate with the crew without omni-tools. Each one of them was under explicit orders to keep their tracking bracelets on at all times outside of their personal quarters to avoid suspicion as they completed a tour of where they could wander around unescorted.

He made it a point to stop by the firing range and combat simulator so they knew where to find him if he wasn't in his personal quarters or the Hangar Bay, they could use their own weapons in there, aside from anti-armor or anti-vehicle grade weapons and grenades. He showed them around the Rec Deck, most of the entertainment features offered were geared towards Mutants, but some of them were universal as well as being easy to figure out.

Once they were alright enough to be on their own, he took them to the Hangar Bay so they could catch a shuttle back to the Citadel to requisition equipment and get it approved by a bunch of technicians that could make quantum communication arrays appear outdated. Of course these were the same people that could 'talk' to computers and anything with a circuit board so if anything was funky or even remotely suspicious, they would tear it apart, analyze it, put it back together and then launch it back out the airlock with a responder beacon attached to it.

It went above his pay grade to know why they had been allowed onboard at all, building stronger bridges and all that crap as he detoured to the bridge to have a few words with Captain Carter about their new guests as he took the elevator and reached the bridge in record time.

Captain Carter was standing near the helm in his usual uniform, didn't look nearly as comfortable as the jumpsuit he was wearing, but to each their own he guessed as he stepped up next to the man.

"What do you think of them Sergeant?"

"Professional or personal opinion sir?"

"Both."

"Going to want to watch the Salarian closely, keep the Turain under a short leash and the Asari is on our side, but I'll keep them confined to the allowed areas of the ship, depends on how much stuff they attempt to smuggle onboard that has me worried." Chad answered bluntly.

"Well it seems that the Quarian will be joining us on this trip."

"Sir?"

"Don't act surprised Sergeant, COM wants to show the Migrant Fleet that we are different from the rest of the Council races and are offering an olive branch towards better relations with them."

"Doesn't surprise me very much."

"We got orders to offer any Quarian we meet in our travels help or aid, no questions asked."

Chad grunted as he scratched his chin, "We hiring on any more?"

"No."

"Wonderful, when are we picking up Krogans?"

"Got two already on contract and they'll be coming in with the rest of the Quarians."

"Seriously? I was being sarcastic. Are we starting a pleasure cruise business courtesy of the COM?" Chad turned and faced Captain Carter with a questioning look.

"No, we also have a few other people coming onboard, three Turains, two Salarian scientists we can trust and five Asari that have been around us longer than you've been alive."

"They have higher clearance to wander around the ship I guess or are they confined the same as the Spectres?"

Captain Carter took that moment to reach over and randomly hit a few commands, "Looks like our guest in the medical bay is awake."

"What is the diagnosis on the Quarian?"

"Have to talk to Dr. Casey for a more in-depth answer other than the fact she has been stabilized," Captain Carter gave him a pointed look, "Sergeant, I want you to talk to her."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, talk to her, get to know her, she is going to be on your team anyway."

"Sure thing Captain, want me to pull out the marshmallows and graham crackers and sing around the campfire while I'm at it? I make a mean batch of popcorn and if she has hair, I'll show her the latest fashion trends on New Haven." Chad smiled innocently as Captain Carter gave him a deadpanned look.

"If it wasn't for the fact that I knew you were kidding, I'd have you down in the psych ward already bouncing around in a padded room," his expression soften, "just get to know her and show her around the ship, odds are she'll be more trusting of you than anyone else."

"Of course sir, we are one big happy family after all."

Captain Carter did something similar to a facepalm as he sighed deeply, "Don't make me send you back to stand in front of the Councilors for another meeting."

Chad glared at the man with narrowed eyes, "That is just cold sir."

"I know, now head down to medical and introduce yourself to the Quarian, that's an order."

"Yes sir." Chad turned on heel and headed towards the elevator.

"Sergeant," Chad turned back to see the somber expression on Captain Carter's face, "go easy on her and talk to her, I mean really talk to her."

Chad nodded as the door slid shut, giving him more than enough to time to run a search on Quarians from the codex, mostly what they looked like under those suits.

By the time he reached the medical bay, he sent fifteen different search queries and came up with nothing, well aside from terrible depictions drawn by a drunk five year old that were not proof what they really looked like as he scowled at his omni-tool and turned it off as he nodded at one of the medical techs heading out as he programed his headset to Quarian language and waited for the decontamination cycle to complete before he walked into the medical bay.

Where he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

**Oh got to love cliffhangers huh? Sorry for taking so long to post, got work, school, three other projects and regular life getting in the way, so hope you all like it.**


	4. Mutants Effect Chapter Three

**Chapter Three: Building Bridges**

There were few times Chad had ever been shocked speechless in his life and this qualified as one of them as he took in the scene in front of him as he stood in the medical bay wondering if there was a god that had a sense of humor.

Laying down in the capsule was a completely different creature than the one he had placed in there hours ago, mostly because the black and deep green environmental suit and purple tinted visor were no longer in the picture anymore as he drank in the sight. It was similar to an velvet colored Asari if it wasn't for the mane of black hair cascading down her head and past her shoulders as Chad made the connection that the paper gown was simply tied around her neck as her arms did an excellent job of keeping it plastered to her body as he noticed several other different things about the Quarian. The edge of the mattress and the gown seemed to have a competition going on to cover as much skin as possible as he noticed that her skin tone remained the same color from her shoulders down to her ankles, he ran his gaze over the strip of exposed skin with a quick eye, stopping at her feet, which had two toes, each one supporting a wicked looking talon that made a Feral like him be thankful he didn't have something like sticking out of his foot.

She also had three fingers on each hand, each one tipped with a decent sized claw, he made the comparison that her claws were longer than his and slightly blunted as she brushed the side of her head to move a curtain of hair over her shoulder to reveal another startling feature.

_She has elf ears? That just isn't fair._

Chad noticed that she also had luminescent silver eyes that practically glowed as he caught a glimpse of tiny sharp teeth past her lips as she turned to face him, the visor on the side of her head snapped him out of whatever daze he was in as he stepped forward. It had been all of five seconds since he walked into the medical bay as he fixed a mask over his face and strode forward like he didn't have a care in the world as he focused on Dr. Casey.

"How is our guest doing doctor?"

Dr. Casey turned around and smiled at him as the other medical tech looked over her shoulder before turning back to the Quarian as he discreetly noticed that the pair of wide silver eyes were staring at him as he stopped just in front of Dr. Casey.

"A close call here and there, but the antibiotics are suppressing her symptoms for now, but nature needs to run its course and flush it out her system, but she won't be coughing and sneezing," Dr. Casey smiled as he waved a hand at his console, "working on isolating the particular enzymes of her genetic makeup to create a stronger antibiotic."

"How is she doing," Chad growled at the man as he narrowed his eyes, "she isn't going to die I take it?"

"Oh heavens no, it'll be at least a day before I'd even think about letting her out and that is after the tests show positive results," Dr. Casey smiled as he turned in the direction of the Quarian in question, "which someone should be conducting said tests as we speak?"

Chad got the impression that the medical tech jumped up off her chair and bounded over to a work station as Dr. Casey grinned and turned back to his console.

"By the way, you should introduce yourself to your newest team member," he nearly didn't catch the sly smile on the doctor's face as he gave the man a hard look, "it would be good for her to have someone to talk too."

If memory served him correctly he knew that Dr. Casey was a telepath as he turned and walked over to the nearest cabinet to find what he was looking for before he headed in the direction of the surgery capsule and neared the foot of the capsule and hit the input command and placed the sterile blanket inside the drawer and waited for the decontamination cycle to complete before he looked up.

"Doesn't seem like a good idea that someone should be practically naked for all to see," Chad said as he abruptly turned around, "I'll be right back."

Without a word he left the medical bay and headed for the Mess Deck, consulting his omni-tool to know what would be safe for a Quarian to eat. Having different amino acids than Mutants meant that Quarians couldn't eat regular food and the whole weak immune system thing as he immediately found what he was looking for and headed back to the medical bay.

He found that the medical tech was gone as Dr. Casey simply looked up and nodded his head before returning to his work as Chad walked back over to the capsule where the Quarian was sitting wrapped in a white blanket from her toes to her throat as her fingers were busy rubbing the soft cotton as he sat down.

"Hope it isn't irritating your skin," Chad said as her head snapped up and watched him shake the container in the air, "got you something to eat."

"Oh, it is fine," she looked down as she toyed with the edge of the material, "what is it made of?"

Chad knew his eyebrow was up as he glanced at the blanket, "Cotton, a plant that we use the abstract from to make clothing, medical bandages and other useful things."

"I've never felt anything so soft before." She looked up and smiled as the panel next to her opened.

As she reached in and pulled out the sealed container of Turain based food supplies sealed to make sure it was safe against airborne contaminates as Chad wondered what kind of life she had lived if she never felt anything soft before as he cleared his throat.

"My name is Chad Matthews," he smiled as he pointed at himself, "Sergeant of the COM Troopers, Mutant obviously."

"Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar," she said she bowed her head, sending a cascade of liquid darkness tumbling over her shoulder as he noticed she was holding the sealed container firmly, "you saved me in the alley."

_Please not another case of hero worship, _he nodded his head as Nika smiled softly, giving him a clear view of her teeth, which were definitely a lot sharper than his own as she bit her lip, _looks like she has a question._

"I don't know what Mutant means, but this visor is telling me that you are something I do not understand," she tilted her head as she tapped the visor several times, "it says you are a 'wild one' in my language."

"Mutants are a diverse group, some of us have different abilities and we are classified by our abilities, depending on what we can do," Chad motioned to himself, "I am known as a Feral type because of certain things that set me apart from others."

Nika gave him a look that told him she really didn't understand as he sighed, "As you put it 'wild one' means I am more animalistic and have certain traits typically associated with well, animals found back on the planet we originated from."

"I see, I only know of rumors of Mutants so correct me if my assumption is incorrect," she pointed at his hands, "is it normal for Mutants to have claws?"

He glanced down at his own claws, each one retracted for now as he lifted his hands and extended them so they were sticking past the tips of his fingers by a good inch.

"Not all of us have claws," he shrugged as he lowered his hands and retracted his claws, "it'll be easier if I just sent you the data packet."

"Oh course," she opened the container as she took a drink from it and swallowed a mouthful, "this is really good."

"Go ahead and eat."

Chad waited as she finished eating the entire container worth of food as he scrounged around for a spare omni-tool in the cabinets as he found one, a brand new Bluewire Tool Mk VII Aldrin Labs manufacturer that he sent the data packet to and calibrated to only communicate with his omni-tool for now as he dropped it into the drawer and waited as Nika finished her meal.

If he thought her eyes could get any wider, he was in for a surprise when her glowing orbs practically popped out of her head as she dropped the empty meal container and gingerly picked up the omni-tool as her mouth opened and closed several times as he nodded at her.

The high pitch squeal coming from the speaker next to him and the ear piece buried in his ear told him two things A) females of any race reacted just about the same way when they received a major gift and B) the omni-tool was hers if he had anything to say about it as she practically gushed over it.

"This is a Bluewire Tool! A brand new Mk VII model! Seventy-four terabytes of processing power! Scanning calibration and detection systems rated for high quality performance! Optional thirteen percent cool down rate for tech operations! Keelah! This could reprogram most equipment and software on ships!"

He mentally patted himself on the back as she slid it up her arm and powered it up, watching as her nimble finger flew across the user controls as she continued her incredibly excited monologue as she abruptly froze and shutdown the omni-tool with the same barely restrained self-control Chad himself had to exercise whenever he got to play with new weapons he built as he felt a smile spread across his face.

"I'm sorry, got excited and carried away." Nika mumbled as she lowered her arm with the omni-tool behind her back as Chad shook his head.

"It's yours to keep," he raised his hand before she could speak, "because you have been accepted as part of our crew and you'll need to be equipped properly."

Nika looked shocked as she looked around wildly, "What crew! You mean I'm here with you! Going past the 226 Relay?"

"We're not going back through the 226 Relay, our mission is to explore the edges of the Terminus Systems and document any undiscovered planets, systems, stars, anything of that nature," Chad replied as he paused for a minute, "we can drop you off on the Citadel once you are cleared by our medical doctor if you don't want to come along with us."

"Are you asking a Quarian if she wants to turn down the chance to travel on the most advanced ship in the galaxy?" Her expression turned stern as Chad wondered if he had insulted her before a wide grin spread across her face and that squeal rent his ears again, "Of course I'll do it!"

"Thank you Miss Gehjar."

She was silent for a minute before she gave him a strange look, "I understand that you have addressed me with the title of unmated female and my ship name, why?"

Chad was confused, "What?"

Nika shook her head, "Sorry, I have a translator for your language and customs but you don't know my mine, my full name is known to you as Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar, which translates in my language as Nika'Hozrh Child of Gehjar, the ship I was born on."

"Oh, so it would be Miss Nika'Hozrh?"

"No, just Nika, our full names are mostly honorary and only used by ship captains or fellow Quarians in greeting."

"Fair enough, just call me Chad or Sergeant."

"Is Sergeant the rank you carry in your Troopers is it?" She sounded kind of cute because she added a 'w' sound after the first letter in Troopers as he smiled.

_Cute? Where did that come from? _

Chad nodded as he leaned closer, "If you don't mind me asking, why is the name of the ship you were born on part of your name."

"Since we left our homeworld three hundred years ago there has been no other place capable of sustaining our particular immune systems, so we live on our Flotilla of ships, we take our parents surname and the name of the ship we were born." Nika explained as Chad checked his own omni-tool with a frown on his face.

"Didn't have that in the codex," he glanced up, "you wouldn't mind filling out information on Quarians for our own database archives, it seems the data we have is faulty."

"Of course, whatever I can do to help."

"Why were you on the Citadel if you don't mind me asking, is there anyone looking for you that we need to notify for you." Chad said as Nika twiddled her fingers together.

"I was on my Pilgrimage, a rite of passage into adulthood by Quarian standards," she paused when she saw him glance at his omni-tool with another doubtful look on his face, "in my society it is to show that when a child reaches the proper age they can become proper asset to the fleet instead of being a burden, so we embark on a journey to find something of value to present as a gift to our ship captain when we return."

"What kind of gift?" Chad asked as he knew aside from general description information, the stuff they had on the codex was crap.

"It can be anything that could make life easier for the Flotilla, a new type of engine component, location of mineral deposits, weapons, a salvaged ship or anything we haven't seen before," Nika shrugged, "if the gift is good enough the Captain will accept the Quarian into the crew and they will drop the child portion of their name."

He almost felt guilty knowing that to earn the favor of Quarians was to shower them with gifts as he tried to wrap his head around the idea of growing up on a ship without being able to take off the suit or else he'd die.

"Must have been difficult growing up."

"Oh it was, the Flotilla has ships since the Morning War and those are getting by barely, so every little bit helps out in the long run." Nika sounded sad as Chad decided not to press the issue farther as he glanced over at the bed containing her suit.

"Do you need anything?" He pointed at her suit as she gave it a thoughtful look, Chad figured that if she was tapping her chin then it had to be thoughtful as he noticed that the blanket had slid lower as he adverted his gaze and walked over to her suit.

It was softer than it looked as he picked up the helmet and set it aside carefully as he unfolded the suit.

"There is a small compartment on the left side, above the belt," she said as Chad gently found the particular compartment and pulled out a worn OSD, "and could you hand me the data cube from my old omni-tool."

The data cube from the omni-tool showed more signs of use than the OSD as he slid the data cube into the slot on his own and waited for the automated hacking program to scan it for anything out of the ordinary as he knew Nika was watching before he did the same to the OSD.

"We have a policy here on the ship," Chad explained as he waited for anything to come up, praying that he wouldn't have to betray her trust as he sat down, "COM has a standing order that anyone who isn't a Mutant cannot have some things, we did the same thing to the Spectres coming along for the ride."

"I understand," Nika said as she looked up, "did you say Council Spectres?"

"Yes, we have three of them tagging along for the ride because it is considered to be for our own protection," Chad smirked as the results of the OSD and data cube scan came back negative, "this isn't personal."

"Doesn't matter, how did you get a couple of Council Spectres to obey that rule?"

"Our ship, our rules," Chad smiled as he put both items into the drawer and closed it, "don't like it, then you can help yourself to the nearest airlock as my Captain says."

She smiled as she pulled the OSD and data cube out of the drawer on her side, "I think I like this captain of yours."

"Great old bastard, did some outstanding maneuvering during the Battle of Zelda a year ago, destroyed a bunch of slaver ships and got a couple medals for it," Chad said as he watched her inserted the data cube and OSD into her new omni-tool, "isn't anyone who doesn't like him."

The edge of the blanket had slid much lower unnoticed as he looked away before glancing at what she doing on her omni-tool as he leaned closer.

"What are you doing?"

Nika looked up surprised, "Just downloading all of my old programs, software and files, also checking the damage down to my suit, seems that the knife did less damage than the doctor did."

"I heard that young lady," Dr. Casey announced from across the medical bay, "it was either get the suit off you before you died or watch as you began suffering seizures in my medical bay."

"I understand that Doctor and I thank you for saving my life," Nika bowed her head in his general direction as Chad gave her suit a once over, "it'll take some time to repair my suit before I can leave safely without landing back in this medical bay."

"Well I think our local tinker sitting in front of you will be more than happy to repair the damage to your suit while you get some much needed rest," Dr. Casey said as he walked closer and checked the interface unit on the side of her capsule, "you had a close brush with death and if it wasn't for the antibiotics in your veins, you would be coughing up large amounts of mucus and snot."

"Don't remind me," Nika shuddered as the blanket dropped away to land in her lap as Chad saw that the paper gown had a tear in it over her stab wound on her smooth abdomen, "it wouldn't take me long to fix it myself, no trouble at all."

"On the contrary young lady," Dr. Casey said as he gave her a look that Chad knew the doctor was putting his foot down, "our Sergeant over here is very skilled in building things and will repair your suit while you get some sleep, you are agitating your lungs and that can be very bad for you."

"Yes sir," she smiled meekly as Chad glanced over at the suit again and then back again, "the suit patches are in the larger pouch on the right side."

Dr. Casey placed a blinder into the drawer and watched her carefully as she lowered the mattress back down and slipped the piece of material over her eyes as she curled up into a ball with the blanket wrapped around her as she pulled the headset off and set it down next to the panel on her side as Dr. Casey turned off the communicated speaker so they wouldn't wake her.

"The antibiotics work best while she is resting and now that she has eaten, it'll be best for her heal and let the drugs do the work for her," Dr. Casey motioned for Chad to follow him, "another thing I wish to discuss with you Sergeant is the condition of her suit."

"Is there something wrong with it doc?" Chad asked as he stood up and walked over to the bed containing her suit as Dr. Casey picked up the helmet and cradled it in his hands carefully.

"As the chief medical officer onboard this ship I make extreme complaints about having anyone running on this ship in such a low quality suit with their life on the line," he gave Chad a stern look, "I would like you to build her a suit capable of standing up to my expectations in order for her to wander around this ship without having to worry about puncturing her suit."

Chad didn't say anything as he scanned the suit with his own omni-tool and looked in utter disbelief once he got the results from the material and schematic scans as he looked up Dr. Casey, who had a knowing look on his face.

"You have to be kidding me, this is all that stands between her and dying?" Chad sighed as he glanced at the suit and then over at the figure of Nika sleeping in the capsule.

"I would consider it a personal favor if you would build her a suit, that and she will be going on your ground team, so I suggest you use that skill of yours to something that will protect her and keep her alive," Dr. Casey paused for a few seconds as he handed Chad the helmet, "I'll send you the accumulated medical data files and any other information I can find to help you with your task, consider it a personal favor and I'll pay you for the materials and labor."

Pride was a fickle thing and it reared its ugly head as Chad gently held the helmet in his hands as he gave the doctor his best looking scowl, "It's her life in my hands doctor, I think you can say that this a personal vendetta to make sure I don't have the first Quarian to ever work with Mutants die on me."

"No pressure then, she'll be in a slight coma like state until all of the contaminates are pushed out of her system, so I guess in my professional opinion you have about twenty hours before she wakes up." Dr. Casey smiled as he sent the data packet from his omni-tool over to Chad's before walking back to his desk.

Chad scoffed as he looked down at the purple tinted visor and saw his own reflection in it as he glanced over at the sleeping form of Nika inside the capsule and felt his expression soften at the sight of her curled up under the blanket and snuggling with her small pillow, the amusing sight of her foot sticking out from under the edge of the white blanket made a small smile tug at his lips.

Hefting the surprising weight of the helmet in his hands he looked at the suit again and felt something he hadn't felt in a long time.

A sense of purpose to build something he couldn't use to fight his own demons.

"No pressure at all doc," Chad shrugged as he folded the suit and picked it up gently, "not like I have any pressing business such as port call."

A lingering chuckle followed him out of the medical bay as he walked out with a purpose and an old environment suit in his hands.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000

There were few things to do with half the crew on port call and Chad had all of the equipment he would ever need to build anything short of his own power armor was inside his quarters and if he ever needed anything, all he would have to do was head down to the Supply Depot and get whatever he needed as he sat down and looked at the suit carefully.

It was older than his grandmother, had more patches on top of existing patches, a single power cell system with no redundant backup system, no armor plating to provide additional protection, straps that were a hodge-podge collection of various materials made into straps to hold everything together and Chad nearly cried when he saw that most of the pouches were built from leftover parts as he set it down and looked over it with a omni schematic scanner. Most of the readings were telling him it had software older than he was, but it had been taken care of and maintained properly, though some of the circuits were either rated lower than typical output or underpowered to work at full capacity. He also knew that these Quarians could build anything out of circuits and ezzo, after taking a step back and looking at the big picture, this suit had managed to do what he didn't think it could, keep someone alive for years.

He shuddered at the thought of preventative maintenance on this suit as he waited for the scanner to complete the scan of everything, from material composition, circuit layouts, sensors, power cell configuration and nerve stimulators, a useful feature for when you had that itch between your shoulder blades as Chad made a mental note to implement that design into his future suits.

Once the scans were complete, he set the entire suit aside in a protective box for now as he sat down at his workbench and sat there thinking.

He thought he could have installed a few minor upgrades and added a few patches, but if it was up to him he would have trashed the suit and melted it down for scrap, but if that was the condition of a Quarian's suit, then he hated to know how bad the ships were of their fleet. It rammed the fact home that Quarians were closer to the brink of extinction that he originally thought as he grabbed a datapad and started configuring a basic design layout for her new suit as he put the medical data into his design as well.

It had to be tough enough to stand up to his level of abuse, have enough medical sensors, scanners, injectors and interfaces that would put a medical bay to shame, provide adequate protection without requiring a jump pack to move around, be comfortable enough to wear all the time and have room for a few upgrades later down the road as Chad set the datapad down and massaged his temples.

"Bot, start the coffee maker and send an order for my meals to be delivered to my quarters," Chad said as he opened the locker containing spare parts, "record everything that retains to the building of this suit for a later technical manual."

_"__Affirmative. Does Sergeant Matthews require a soundtrack to be played as well?"_

"You got it Bot." Chad answered as he fired up the automated manufacturing unit taking up most of the space on his wall to start making the actual bodysuit out of a combination of materials with measurements taken Dr. Casey's medical data as he started on the most important component.

Nothing can run without a power source so he started on building that, creating a back plate that would contain three power cells, one primary, one backup and one redundancy system as he got to work as soothing music poured out of the speakers above his head.

The back plate would run from the top of her shoulders, the width of her back and stop just above where her tailbone would end, it would appear like a dome sticking out of her back, about thirty centimeters thick, this was the important component of the suit to house the power cells, suit processors, circuit motherboards, filtration modules, nerve stimulators, a implemented hydration filtration system that could sterilize regular water so it would safe enough for her to drink, a medical gel processor that could generate units of medical gel as well as an antibiotic generator. The last two items were new technology in the Citadel systems, but he figured that as long as Nika had access to basic minerals, she could be self-sufficient as long as she didn't wreck the system or get heavily injured very often. His goal was to put as many features he could put into the suit to keep her alive for as long as possible without having to worry giving away COM tech, it was some pretty high end Citadel stuff.

As much as it annoyed him, he figured that Nika would serve the role as technician and engineer rather than as a combatant role, but damned if he was going to leave her in a suit with only a few layers of space age material to stop mass accelerator rounds or shrapnel, so he decided to merge one of his existing light armor designs into the suit. It would double the original weight of her old suit, but he didn't care as he built thin armor plates into the mesh of the suit, leaving the option to remove them later on if it was required, but he wanted to give her more protection that her old suit had provided as he started on the components of a shield generator into the back plate as well.

He paused when made the realization that he was installing a shield modulator system typically associated with heavy armor systems as he wondered why he was feeling so, he had to stop what he was doing and think of a word that didn't sound so selfish.

_Paternal? No. Protective? No. Overzealous? Definitely not. _

Chad shrugged and continued installing the required parts, he figured it was what anyone would do if they had to be confined to a single suit for the rest of their lives, though he made sure to use top of the line Citadel shield technology and not the COM stuff. The debate was one he had to fight as he slotted the modulator into place and wired it up properly without crossing any circuits as he ran a few tests to make sure it functioned properly, knowing that COM rated shields were a lot tougher and resilient to damage as he shook his head and kept working.

Next were the chest and torso plates that would be worn over the top of the actual suit, connecting to the back plate and providing the person, or Quarian, additional protection as he used the lightest materials that had better durability to cut down on weight. It was actually made up of seven parts, the collar yoke that set on top of her shoulders, the chest plate that covered her from throat to sternum, two plates that ran down her sides from her armpits to where the waist belt would connect too, then there were three plates that covered her midsection and left attachments to connect to the waist belt as well. The plates were connected together, but the side and midsection plates were hinged so that they had some flexibility so Chad figured that she wouldn't be stuck in an uncomfortable suit. He attached the waist belt, a band that connected the bottom of the back plate, both side plates and the bottom midsection plate so the upper body portion of the armor was connected together, in a sense tightening it so it wouldn't move around causing undo chaffing. He also built a set of high speed elbow pads that had to be worn over the top of the suit, easy to put on and the metal plate would protect her in the chance she had to crawl around inside something, that or else elbow someone in the face he thought while grinning savagely at the thought of watching Nika perform such a feat.

In addition to the elbow pads, he made a set of lightly armored gauntlets, built to adapt an omni-tool and each one had several shield reflector points so she had some shielding around her limbs, but he didn't think she would like the idea of armored fingers as he stopped the gauntlet at her wrist. Then he built the lower portion of the back plate that would connect to the bottom of the waist belt, it was more of a support brace for the back plate than anything and it would settle on her, well….

Chad tried not to think about it as he set the body measurements to custom fit the plate, it looked like a crescent moon hanging down from the waist belt and he installed a fourth power cell system into it, but that was for powering anything other than the suit, such as an external suit of armor or something along those lines, either way she had a mobile battery pack for her to hook things up too and the plate would have an additional use, other than making her backside look, damn good for a better lack of words as he tore his mind from the gutter.

_Focus Chad, _he chided at himself as he got back to work.

Because he prided himself on not being some sort of sexist prick, he designed the crotch armor to provide protection to the major arteries running through her legs, similar to the femoral artery found in Mutants, so it would be very bad if she took a hit in either one of those because they probably wouldn't get her to any kind of medical facility to save her. It consisted of three parts, a crotch plate that attached to the waist belt and then the two inner thigh plates that would go down halfway to her knee, the thigh plates would connect to the crotch and then to the suit itself, preventing them from flopping around or coming loose. Another good thing about the crotch plate, it had shield reflectors to provide her with additional shielding from the waist down as he figured out that traditional knee pads were not going to work properly when it came to Quarians.

Different kind of joint required a different idea as he created a flexible knee pad that consisted of three flexible metal bands that would allow her freedom of movement and still protect her joints if she ever took a hit or needed to introduce various parts of her anatomy to an opponent.

It was then Chad sat down and thought really hard about her feet, which had two big toes on the front of her foot and the one on the back of her heel that he hadn't seen as he thought about creating some kind of shoe to go around her foot as he thought about it and came up with a better idea. It went from her ankle down to the arch of her foot, providing ankle support and having the nifty things such as magnetic strips and gravity boots as he added two armored sleeves that would connect to her boot while leaving her toes wrapped in armor plating, he figured that if they ever went down to a planet, he would order her to have them on. All of the armor, except the back plate and the collar yoke could be removed if there was suit maintenance required or if she wanted to lose half the weight of her suit and be able to stretch and move around when they were onboard, then that was alright. Every armor component had shield reflectors that would help disperse the kinetic barriers and typical shielding over her entire body more evenly, that and the lightweight of the plating made it about as heavy as set of tactical armor without most of the actual armor plating inserts.

He then went along and started added the additional features to the system itself, putting the magnetic weapon strips on the armor first. It followed the traditional placement, one in the middle of the back, one behind either shoulder, one in the middle of the lower back and one on the outside of each thigh, the same as his own armor systems before he moved onto the pouches and compartments he fashioned into the armor.

On the waist belt he put eight pouches all the way around, the same size as the ones he had on his own set of armor, he also put four more on the middle midsection plate and two on each thigh plate behind the magnetic strips so she would have plenty of room for tools, rations, medical supplies and other equipment she might need while they were away from the ship as he thought about having some kind of operational procedure for her to follow, but decided to wait and see.

While the suit itself was fifty percent complete, he started working on the helmet, knowing that it would connect into the suit itself and be the second most important part of the entire suit as he took her old helmet and decided to build the new one even better.

"This is where someone would tell you that you need a life," Chad muttered to himself as he found himself getting excited about designing a helmet of all things, "the last thing the galaxy needs to know is that the great Chad Matthews geeks out over stuff like this."

Galaxy's opinion of him be damned, he was having fun, the concept of building something to serve a greater purpose and be functional was the most fun he had since well, ever.

Shaking those thoughts aside, he went back to the helmet, creating the internal guts first and then building the helmet around the components. There was the air filtration system, feeding tubes, hydration system, temperature regulation sensors, internal suit pressure regulator, breathing apparatus, emergency feeding port, face stimulator system for when that itchy nose syndrome struck in the middle of a firefight, moisture extractor to keep perspiration to a minimum and then the visor system itself. There wasn't going to be tubes and wires sticking out of the back of her head as the helmet streamlined the whole thing to be protected by armor plating and shield reflectors as he worked on implementing the visor system.

He left the visor the same as the original, so as to avoid narrowing field of vision and such, turning the inside of the visor into a reflective HUD system that displayed several things, such as suit integrity, shield strength, health status, translator software, passive scanners, equipped weapon status, polarization, suit control interface and as an afterthought, he installed a series of lights inside her helmet so her face could be visible from behind the visor.

Why the last part irked him so much was because he wanted to see her face without having to lock her inside of a medical surgery capsule after she had been injured, so he had selfish reasons.

With the suit reaching eighty-three percent completion, he set all of the armor components, the back plate and helmet aside for now and decided that if any Quarian was going to be onboard the Reckoning, then said Quarian would need the proper equipment and need a kit, which he was only so happy to go get.

Chad was surprised that so much time had passed as he went straight to the Supply Depot to put in the order for a standard kit as he stopped to think it over for a moment.

Half the stuff typically found in a standard kit wouldn't do a Quarian much good as he realized that he would need to special order a lot of stuff just for to use as he reached the Supply Depot.

Commissions Officer Hailey Beck greeted him with a soft smile as the glow from her fingertips died down as she turned away from the terminal she was seated at, "New project Matthews? By the way, my husband loved the stun bracelet you built for my daughter, says he no longer needs to beat the boys off with a stick anymore."

Everyone on the ship knew that Beck's daughter was a hellion worse than her mother and Chad had decided to build her a defensive bracelet five minutes after meeting the half-pint pixie, the result was a new product line in non-lethal countermeasures that could deliver a twenty thousand volt punch after it was activated, resulting in an unconscious or damn near perpetrator while the owner of said bracelet didn't as so much as feel a jolt.

"Got a bit of an order for you," Chad said as he sent the data packet pertaining the Quarian physiology and medical information to her terminal as her eyes glowed white for a second, "think you can help me?"

"She can eat the same stuff as turains so that will be easy obtaining food stores for her, medical can provide her with all the antibiotics she'll ever need, just need to watch when she isn't in the suit," Beck thought about it for a minute before she grinned, "I'll send the techs down and repurpose her a room so she can spend time outside of that suit while I work on your order, good news is that we are expecting a bunch of turains onboard, so we'll just up the food order to compensate for her."

"Thanks, oh and I need to see what surplus equipment, Citadel only, that you have on hand, along with a few other items on my list." Chad said as Beck waved him through the checkpoint and pointed him towards the terminal where he could browse everything and set up a spending budget.

The idea around the supply system on the ship was that decent equipment would be provided, but individual members of the crew could purchase or work for better equipment, it was a system that worked most of the time, the funny thing was that he didn't have to pay anything he had ever patented or built.

He immediately purchased the best tool kit, the one hundred sixty-five different combination engineer tool would take up an entire pouch, but he figured that it was worth it, along with a case of standard suit patches, a dozen extra filters, two self-sealed canteens that could decontaminate food and water supplies, four spare circuit motherboards for hasty repairs, a datapad containing the latest information on technical manuals and software programming, several sets of clothes for her to wear when she wasn't in the suit and a bunch of other miscellaneous items he figured she would need because he knew she owned exactly four suit patches, a pouch of random tools and a pouch full of junk to be honest.

"Take care Matthews," Beck waved at him as he turned to leave with a crate containing all of the items he figured Nika would need while on the ship, "let me know if you find anything interesting and we'll make duplicates here on the ship."

Chad nodded as he headed for the Armory, which was conveniently next to the Hangar Bay, which would be his next stop after he picked up a few weapons for Nika, because she had exactly one small boot knife that he admired secretly as he reached the Armory.

A hairy giant of man with six eyes and four arms was dismantling two pistols and an assault rifle while reading something off the console next to him as one eye noticed Chad standing there at the window.

"Matthews," Technical Master Sergeant Kevin Brody greeted him as he set the weapons aside and turned to the window where Chad was standing, "what can I do for you?"

"You know me, looking for something to blow something up with," Chad chuckled as Brody leaned forward with a massive grin on his face, "one man destruction squad you know, got to keep up with the profile."

"Uh huh, you could build weapons far more dangerous than I have locked up in here, so what do you need hotshot?"

"Got a Quarian that is joining the team, need to get her a few non-COM issued weapons," Chad shrugged as Brody scratched his chin thoughtfully with one hand as the other three picked up the weapons and stowed them under the counter, "know anything about what they like to carry?"

"Not a damn thing actually, I guess you can have her fire a little bit of everything in the range, but for now we can kit her out with a few weapons," Brody shrugged his massive shoulder as he turned the console towards the window, "what do you want?"

It took him the better part of an hour browsing through the inventory screen while getting into a heated debate with the master-at-arms over what to give an unknown from a combat team standpoint and the older, wiser and more disciplined armory technician.

He settled with three weapons for now, a Takorov Mk V pistol, a Scimitar Mk VI shotgun and a simple Striker Mk III submachine gun for now, as well as a handful of regular grenades and a bunch of Citadel regulated omni-tool programs onto an OSD for her to download onto her new one. The programs included overload, hack, incinerate and sabotage for now, just the kind of things he figured a support role to a combat team would need for now as he entertained the thought of giving her some of the more advanced programs.

That would just get him in trouble as he wondered what kind of duty station would be best suited for Nika while she was on the ship, not that the whole keep the outsiders isolated from the vital areas for the ship really made sense to him, but he didn't want her mopping floors for some reason, waste of talent.

The Hangar Bay contained a small fleet of Kodiak shuttles that were always in need of being maintained and repaired, along with a few Kowloon freighters and the occasional vehicle as well, not that he could get her working alongside with the engineering crew, but it seemed like the best place for her as he sought out the Control Officer.

Underneath a dismantled Mako surrounded by spare parts and loose tools was none other than Control Officer Elizabeth Morgan, a telepath as well as slightly telekinesis, which he saw in action as a part of what he was pretty sure was the engine turbine lift up off the floor and float underneath the vehicle without anyone touching it.

"Either stop staring at my ass and get under here with a wrench or ask the fucking question," there was also a reason why she was the Control Officer of the Hangar Bay, though she made her husband do all the paperwork and management while she did what she loved to do best, which was fix things, "I got three vehicles in the middle of overhaul Matthews, so no, I will not let you have another vehicle cannon."

"Oh come on, that was one time and I returned it," Chad pouted as Elizabeth rolled out from under the vehicle with a questioning look as he sighed, "eventually."

"Yeah, in pieces, what the Hell did you do with it?" She glowered at him as he smiled his best disarming smile that was failing epically under the withering glare of the mechanic.

"I took the meanest assault rifle, the largest portable cannon I could get my hands on, locked them both in a room for a month with nothing but growth enhancement drugs, steroids and crystal meth to eat until they spawned me the bastard child of a monster to tame and nourish as my own." Chad answered as the look on her face changed to one of feigned interest.

"Some people would have you in a straightjacket if they heard that," she waited all of three seconds before grinning, "that was part of your heavy machine gun idea wasn't it?"

"Who said it was an idea," Chad scoffed as he gave her a look, "got twenty-five copies in inventory and the COM bought the design contract like that, fires like a goddamn beast that makes me get all excited."

"When can I fire one of these monsters?"

"Well that depends," Chad said as he set the crate containing the supplies for Nika on the deck, "I need your blessing to induct another mechanic on this ship."

Elizabeth gave him a look that would terrify lesser men as she summoned a rag from somewhere and started cleaning her hands as she stood up to her full terrifying height of five foot nothing as she stepped forward.

"Listen Matthews, I really like you and I know you build the coolest weapons that get me all hot and bothered when you let me shoot them, but if you ever think I will let you dismantle something in my hangar bay ever again I will have to hunt you down and cut your balls off with my personal plasma torch, got it?" The last few words were spoken in a growl that could put most Feral Mutants to shame as he smiled cheekily and backed away really slowly when he saw her hand reach for said tool used for dismembering his anatomy.

"Relax, you've heard about the Quarian down in medical right?" Chad held his hands up to show that he meant peace as she lifted her hand away from the torch hanging off her hip.

"Yes, it is a she right?"

"Yes, well brass wants her to join the team and I figured that she should have a station here on ship, being a Quarian means that she should have a knack for fixing things," Chad paused for a moment as a thoughtful look crossed over the mechanic's face, "so you'll think about it?"

She waved her hand in a fifty-fifty gesture, "Depends on how much you sweeten the deal, but I'll put it under consideration."

"Thanks Liz, I owe you one."

"If someone owes my wife anything, then it should be a piece of my mind," a voice spoke up as Elizabeth let out a girlish squeal and pounced her husband, "what are asking for this time Matthews?"

Chad gave the tall lanky albino man a look that should have sent him off to the nearest corner to cry and only got a mild shrug as Elizabeth wrapped her arms around the man's neck, Charles Nexus, a Speed Mutant by nature and an overall pain in the ass in Chad's opinion as thought about messing with the man, just for fun.

"Oh you know, asked your wife to have an orgy with me and all my guns and to leave you, you know, the usual."

Charles laughed as he set his wife down with a quick peck on the cheek, "Is he wanting to dismantle a tank again honey?"

"That was one time alright, so drop it!" Chad snapped as Elizabeth sighed and touched Charles' head for a few seconds before the other man nodded thoughtfully.

"I don't see what another set of hands around here can hurt, she probably knows more about the damn things than we do," Charles smirked as he glanced down at his wife, "what was that I heard about getting a little action if you got some at the range?"

Chad was howling with laughter at the blush that covered the mechanic's face as Charles reached over and bro pounded the other mutant with a smile of victory as said mechanic reached for her torch with glowering eyes glaring at him as he promptly stopped laughing and stood back up.

"I'll see if you can come in after we conduct weapons training with the ground team," Chad shrugged as Elizabeth's eyes lit up and Charles simply face palmed, "see if I can let you guys in."

The couple nodded at him as he scooped up the crate and headed in the direction of his quarters to store the stuff he had gotten for Nika until she had her own room.

Needless to say that he was surprised to find a team of techs working on refurbishing the room next to his as realized that Beck had done exactly what she said she would do, but Chad figured that he would have had at least some say in where she would be bunking as he walked inside his own quarters and stowed the additional gear he had gotten when he noticed that the automated manufacturer was finished as he went back to work.

"Look at you," Chad whispered as he pulled the bodysuit out of the machine and gave it a long look, "much tougher than before huh?"

It was four layers of industrial strength ballistic and polymer fibers rated to withstand the most extreme abuse known to the galaxy, save for COM materials, but he figured that nobody had ever integrated a single layer of microfiber weaved with tiny cables of titanium weaved into a dense pattern that was enough to stop just about damn near anything, short of an industrial cutting laser or temperatures hot enough to melt it, Chad figured that the suit was enough to keep Nika safe for now.

It was a lot heavier too, but it had a coating of memory gelatin on the inside, the first innovation ever introduced by COM, so it was alright to use for now and when he had enough to coat the inside of the ship with it, Chad wasn't worried the slightest at the price, because his own suit was coated with the same stuff and he never spent days on end inside a suit. The gel also had thousands of nerve stimulators embedded in it, the tip of each finger had a sensor in it so when the operator had the desire to itch somewhere, all they would have to do is touch the suit and the nerve stimulators would do the actual work, a design concept that had been placed in any suit he had ever built, especially when he had to wear heavy armor on operations.

It was a default black color as he attached the back plate to provide the suit with power as he finished attaching everything important and ran several tests before he was even remotely satisfied that it all went together like it should. After six successful pressure seal tests and two reboot tests to make sure the hardware and software worked properly without any glitches or hiccups before he broke it back down, leaving the back plate attached for now as he pulled out the old suit and looked at it carefully.

The alien designs and artistic swirls were pleasing to the eye as he noticed most of the paint was chipped and scuffed away before he glanced over at his laser engraving setup and smiled thoughtfully and sat down to get to work on giving the suit a little personalization.

He started on the boots and worked his way up, the design revolved around three interconnected swirls that were easy to copy onto each part of the suit as he had it engraved on each piece of armor plating, including the back plate after the rest of them were properly marked before he decided a little paint to finish the job as well, deciding to use her old suit as a reference for the color scheme. It was black with dark green streaks wrapped around the torso and thighs as he noticed that the headdress looking thing seemed to have some significant value as he decided to add it onto the new suit, because every picture he found of any Quarian female had one of them.

Chad made a mental note to ask about it as he held the dark green and black cloth in his hands while he fitted it onto the clasps attaching it to the shoulders, chest and the one on the top of the helmet itself to make sure it fit correctly before he decided to paint the suit.

It had the same streaks carefully painted onto the torso and thighs while keeping the black base color as he waited for everything to dry and set it aside.

"Bot, begin compiling suit technical manual," Chad said as the music paused and the terminal next to his workbench came to life, "continue music."

_"__Affirmative. Conducting structural and mechanical breakdown of suit operations. Warning. Voice narrative recommended, what audio file should be used sir?"_

Chad furrowed his brow while thinking for a minute, "Use my own voice for audio narrative Bot."

_"__Affirmative."_

Before he got too far ahead on the manual, he programmed the automated manufacturer to make another set of visors for her suit and repaired the damage to her old suit in a manner of minutes, but if it was up to him, he would order her to wear the new he built for several reasons.

One of them was that he spent a lot of work building the suit, another was that if she was going to be the first Quarian working with Mutants then for damn sure they were going to provide her with decent gear.

That and he liked her, as strange as that sounded in his head as he paused in the middle of work and smiled at the memory of her squealing in joy over the new omni-tool.

He liked her a lot.


	5. Mutants Effect Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: A Farewell to Sanity**

Chad woke up realizing that he had fallen asleep at his workbench again, wiping the drool off the side of his face as he ran a hand through his hair wondering what time it was before he looked at the surface of his workbench and wondered when he had started working on dismantling half his arsenal of extra hardware.

Now he remembered as he glanced over at the crate containing all of the supplies and the new suit he had built yesterday as he stood up and worked the kinks of his back, knowing that the gods had a cruel fate in store for him as bones popped back into place as he stretched. He had finished the manual for the suit and had started working on building an exterior set of heavy armor for another member of the crew when he fell asleep as he hopped into his shower and cleaned up.

It was about then that he noticed the sounds of ongoing construction in the room next to him was also gone, the reason why he hadn't fallen asleep when he finished with the suit, so he started knocking a suit of armor together before everything caught up with him and he passed out in his own chair.

Now that he was dressed and ate the container of food sitting on the edge of his workbench, he checked the results of the automated manufacturer to find a matching set of finished visors built from the strongest resins and glass that matched the old one, only these could stand up to a lot more abuse and damage as he placed them under the new suit so they were among the rest of the gear and equipment inside the crate. Once that done, he went over to his locker and pulled out his lightest suit of armor, a set of upgraded tactical armor to be honest, and made sure he had the rebreather helmet and got suited it up.

He didn't need a to carry all of his weapons, opting for his pistol, shotgun and submachine gun while he was on the ship and made sure the seals were airtight, leaving him with enough breathable air for forty-five minutes as he took the helmet off again.

"Let's go get her suited up," Chad said as he picked up the crate and frowned at the weight, "I'll see if her room is finished instead of lugging this all over the ship."

Sure enough, the techs had installed another door, creating an airlock as he waited for the decontamination cycle to allow him entry into the now smaller room, about half the size, but still big enough for four people as he checked the room over carefully. The room had a new shower installed as well, it had a special sterilizing tank that could clean up to a hundred gallons of water so it was safe for her to take a bath without having to worry about a slight contamination that would result in her death. There was only one bed in it for now, clean white sheets and all that as he noticed a long workbench had been installed on the other side of the room next to the set of lockers as he set the crate down on the floor underneath the bench and grabbed the suit.

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Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar blinked several times to clear the drowsy feeling of sleep from her eyes as she realized that the blindfold over her eyes did an excellent job of blocking the light as she tugged it off her head and yawned loudly while stretching her arms over her head.

She hadn't sleep this good in years, though she was pretty sure that the drugs and the fact her suit was missing had something to do with it as she looked around the medical bay before spotting Dr. Casey and Amy sitting near another console as she put the headset back on and tapped the interface to use the call button as both Mutants looked up and over at her as she waved at them.

"Ah good morning Nika, I see you are doing much better," Dr. Casey said after he walked over to the capsule and activated the interface for a few seconds before he turned to speak to Amy, "run the test again to make sure it will bond with the molecules and then introduce the other test chemicals to the sample before you get ahead of yourself."

"Morning Dr. Casey," Nika said as she watched the panel next to her open and reveal the container of sterilized water and one of food as she started to salivate, "oh breakfast."

"No worries there Nika, eat up!" Amy said as she turned back to the console while Dr. Casey checked the interface on his side of the capsule as Nika started eating with a ravenous hunger as she finished her meal in a few minutes.

"Hungry this morning I see," Dr. Casey said as he walked over a crate set against the wall and pulled out another container of food, "you need the energy so eat up."

"I'm sorry, I usually don't lay around eating food without working for it first." Nika apologized as she tore into the next container of food, her stomach growling happily as she finished that one as well and shook her head at the offered third.

"That is understandable, healing requires a lot of energy to do and you essentially cleared an infection, contamination exposure and a knife wound in less than thirty hours without suffering from the side effects is remarkable, how are you feeling if I can ask?"

"Fine, well better than I have felt in a long time I guess," Nika said as she pulled the paper gown aside slightly to examine her injury, which was nothing more than a faint pink scar, "your medical technology is pretty advanced doctor."

"Well you have to understand that Mutants are genetic anomalies and are difficult to understand without conducting large amounts of medical tests, so over the last hundred years or so, we have gotten pretty good at developing all manner of drugs, serums, antidotes, tranquilizers, gene treatment drugs and antivirus treatments if you must know," Dr. Casey had the look of pride on his face as Nika noticed he seemed to swell his chest up as he spoke, "we have had plenty of practice."

"Shouldn't have gotten him started Nika," Amy pitched across the medical bay gently, "now we have to listen to him gloat about his medical prowess all day."

Dr. Casey shot her a pained look as Nika wondered briefly if he really had been injured until he spoke in a tone of voice she knew was a mocking tone, "You wound me lowly assistant, I never gloat over my prowess in the medical field!"

Nika smothered a giggle as the two of them bantered back and forth as she watched the door open with a hiss revealing someone she was familiar with as thoughts of prowess rushed to her head.

Sergeant Matthews was suited up in a smaller set of armor, his helmet hanging off his left hip as she noticed he had a bundle in his arms that was black and faint traces of green.

"Ah just the man I was looking for!" Dr. Casey exclaimed as Nika realized she had been staring again.

"Of course doc, when have I ever gone back on my word?" Sergeant said as Nika had to pretend that the soft growl of his voice didn't scare her as she watched him set the bundle down on a nearby bed and saw the familiar visor.

The visor itself was the only thing she even recognized of the entire suit as she noticed immediately that it was lot bigger than her old one and there seemed to be some kind of metal plates as she found herself in an undignified position with her face pressed against the glass on her hands and knees.

"I think she wants some answers Chad," Amy smirked as the two men looked over at her and then at the capsule as Nika appeared to be using her omni-tool to get a clear scan, "so until then, the good doctor and I will go get some breakfast while you help her get suited up."

Nika looked up as her omni-tool powered off, "You built me a suit? Why?"

A set of shoulders shrugged as Sergeant scratched the back of his head, "If you are going to be on my team, then you need some decent gear to run around in, so I built you one, is that a problem?"

She had to take to several deep breaths to calm herself down, there was no way he could know what it meant that he had built her a suit, her culture and his were completely different as she noticed Dr. Casey glanced at the interface on the side of her box.

"No, not at all, I was just surprised you built me one," Nika said as she sat back down and pulled the blanket around her shoulders, "have you built a suit for Quarians before?"

"No, but I used detailed specs and scans from your old one and made this one better." The answer reached her ears as she did her best to avoid blushing.

"Do you have a schematic of it so I can see it?" Nika asked as Amy dragged Dr. Casey by the arm towards the door.

A single data packet later and Nika was browsing the suit schematic with wide eyes as she feverishly skimmed the file on the suit in utter disbelief.

Her suit. The one that this Mutant built for her. No, the one Sergeant had built for her.

Half the things in the suit she never even heard of until she nearly fainted at the software designation rating, her suit could power a shuttle for Keelah sake! An antibiotic generator and a medical gel processer? Now she was honestly thinking about killing him by crushing all of the bones in his lower body into nothing more than pulp as she secretly entertained the thought.

"Why…..is…I….." Nika was speechless for once in her life as Sergeant locked his helmet into place and started the decontamination cycle for the entire room as he spread the various components of the suit out on the bed as she checked the schematics again and nearly squealed in joy.

"I'll run the cycle again a few times and get you suited up once I get you out of that capsule, alright?" Sergeant asked as his visor depolarized to show his face as Nika struggled with the words so she was at least coherent.

_Keelah, is it possible to crush his pelvis?_

"Of course," she managed as the decontamination cycle started again as she looked at the suit and then at him, "I am ready."

"I'm going to hit the decontamination cycle one more time, just to make sure the room is clean."

_Stop sounding like you are about to growl you damn Mutant! _She wanted to yell at him as the heat started to throb as she thought about anything to get her mind off that topic.

A loud hiss filled her ears as she looked up in surprise to see the glass dome covering her lift upwards as her erratic thoughts were chased from her mind as she forced herself not to panic as she felt the subtle difference in air temperature while her eyes closed at the thought of a panic attacked. This wouldn't happen, it was safe in here and she knew it, why would they go through all this trouble to just kill her if they wanted her dead as she exhaled deeply and tightened her grip on the blanket.

"Nika, are you alright?"

It was much softer than before as she opened her eyes and looked up to see Sergeant easily within reach as a single hand was presented to her as she reached out slowly and clasped her hand into his, finding it awkward to do so because he had so many fingers. Raw strength rested within his hand as he pulled her forward as she lowered her bare feet to the floor, smiling at the sensation of the floor against her skin as she bravely took another step.

"This is something to get used to." Nika said as she boldly walked across the medical bay, still clutching his hand as she stopped at the foot of the bed that held the suit.

"Hold on a second," Sergeant said as he gently shook his hand free and walked over to a nearby cabinet, "going to get something clean for you to stand on."

She wondered what he was talking about as she reached over and touched the nearest part of the suit with a single finger, a smile breaking out over her face as she traced the pattern of her clan's crest embedded in the metal.

"Here," a gruff word from Sergeant broke her concentration as a heavy hand touched her shoulder, "going to clean off your feet so you don't wind up with something sticking to your feet, had it happen before."

A very true statement as Nika watched as the giant dropped to one knee and grabbed her ankle, nearly throwing her off balance as she latched onto his shoulder as he quickly washed her entire foot with a soft cloth that caused her to curl her toes and attempt to pull away, a soft shriek escaping her lips as she blushed. Furiously.

"Ticklish are we?" An amused chuckled reached her ears as her heart did strange things at the sound of his soft laughter before he finished cleaning her feet and set it down on a square of cloth that tickled her foot as much as his methodical washing as he reached for the other foot. Nika chewed on her lower lip as she shifted her weight and brought her leg up for him to wash gently before he lowered it onto the soft pad next to her other foot as he slid sideways and then stood up, towering two and a half heads taller than her as he stepped around her and grabbed the suit.

"I built it slightly different than from what you are used to, it opens in the front instead of the back." He said as he opened the suit and stepped around behind her.

_Do not panic, do not get down and lower yourself to the floor, stand tall Nika, it isn't what you are thinking it is, _through sheer will she remained standing as he draped the suit in front of her as realized what she had to do as she grasped the edges of the suit and stepped one leg inside.

A soft moan reached her ears as the pleasant sensation of the material against her skin as she pulled her leg all the way until she could wiggle her toes at the foot, this amazing 'memory gel' was something every Quarian should have as she carefully slipped her other foot inside the suit. She didn't bother stifling this moan as she dragged the suit up until she couldn't anymore, relishing in the feeling of her lower body being encased in the softest material she had ever felt.

"Yeah, it tends to have that effect on people who never felt it before." An amused chuckle came from behind her as she simply looked over her shoulder to see a smile on his face.

"How long has this marvelous material been in existence?" Nika gasped as she removed the paper gown and tossed aside the blanket before removing her omni-tool as she shoved her left arm into the sleeve.

"Uh, about a hundred years give or take."

Nika shuddered as she flexed her fingers and then struggled to get her other arm inside the other sleeve as Sergeant reached over and helped her as she completed that task as she practically purred at the sensation of being wrapped in the stuff as a pair of hands reached around and secured the front of her suit, the inner flap covered her from shoulder to shoulder before the outer flap was pulled over that, creating a seal as the two flaps covered each other.

It was almost sensory overload on her part as looked down to watch as the hands quickly sealed her up in the suit as the design concept was ingenious to her at least as she felt the weight on her back tug at her sense of balance as she turned around.

"This will take some getting used to," Nika said as she watched Sergeant reach for another piece, "what is that?"

Another heart wringing chuckle got her attention as he reach over and attached to the front of her chest, taking care near each shoulder, "Still got the rest of the suit to put on you."

In short order, she discovered that the Mutant idea of a suit qualified as heavy armor among the Quarians as she stood there watching as he attached more armor to her suit, marveling at the light weight of each piece at clung to her body as he finished with torso and abdomen plates. Next went the belt that rest just above her hips as she helped him attached the universal clips to the bottom portion of armor hanging down her body, making it tight as she shifted her upper body back and forth to see how her sense of movement was restricted. Very little it turned out as she felt slightly constricted in her movements, but nothing she was willing to complain about as she watched Sergeant grab another plate.

"Turn around."

Those words stopped her cold as she knew that she was blushing deeply as she looked at him in shock, he said it such a disregard that she secretly wondered if he knew about Quarian mating habits as he gave her a strange look.

_You are inside a suit, there is nothing he can do and he isn't Quarian, so I doubt if he knows what to do! _She mentally scolded herself as she gave him a brief look and turned around, noticing at once he was simply attaching a piece of armor to the bottom of the belt on her backside.

It settled comfortably as a gentle nudge to her shoulder caused her to turn around again as he grabbed the next piece of armor, which looked downright strange to her as he stood there for a second, hesitant.

He took a step back and pointed at himself, "This part of the armor goes here," he pointed quite clearly at the point on his person he was referring to, "so the leg armor can attach it, to protect the veins in your legs."

It took her a moment to understand what he was saying and it intrigued her that she had never thought of placing armor on that portion of her body, but then again she never had enough materials to even think about armor as she twiddled her fingers.

"Very well Sergeant, how does it go on?" She was surprised that her voice was even and sounded calm as he did something she least expected him to do. He turned so the bed was to his left and lifted his leg so his foot rested on the edge of the bed while maintaining his balance as he looked up to face her.

"It clips onto the waist belt and sticks to the magnetic strip already on the suit, this way it goes on properly," he explained as he pointed at where his attached to his waist belt as Nika realized that the idea was brilliant, "this way the thigh armor can attach to it without the need of straps going up and down your legs."

_Advanced and intelligent? Keelah, what next?_

Nika bobbed her head up and down a few times as she stepped closer to the bed and mimicked his position, watching as he lowered his leg down and hold onto her shoulders as she teetered dangerously as her arms flailed about wildly before she latched onto Sergeant to maintain her balance.

This kind of stretching caused the suit to tighten across her body, making it easier for the armored plate to attached itself as she took it from his hand and fumbled with it for a second before it locked into place as she lowered her leg to the floor again.

"Marvelous," Nika muttered as she took several steps backwards and then back to her original position in front of Sergeant, "you really can't tell it is there."

"We still have the leg armor to put on," the tone sounded amused as Nika scowled at him for a brief second before she noticed the armor held in his hands, "it'd be easier if you stood still."

It went on without a hitch, he put the one on her left leg first, it draped the inside of her thigh and attached to the crotch segment as she noticed how it locked into place and grabbed the other one to do it herself as she noticed that they attached to her suit without the need for straps to tighten them down.

"Got the last little bit now."

She watched as the strange knee guard was attached, discovering that it didn't hinder her movements as she did a few stretches as Sergeant turned around to reach for something.

"You need to stop moving around." Nika knew she was being scolded as she stood rigid.

"Yes sir." She answered as his face moved in a strange pattern, she figured that Mutants could make a living by entertaining other races by making faces at each other, it was amusing.

"Don't call me sir, I'm not an officer and hold up your foot."

A smile graces her lips as she held up her right foot, watching as he slid something over her foot that left her toes exposed as she figured it was some kind of boot that protected the rear half of her foot. Instead of releasing her leg, clutched in a firm grip just above the boot, he turned around to grab something else and Nika frowned at the sight of what was in his hand as he looked up.

"You don't have a problem with something to wear over your toes?" The question hung in the air as Nika wondered how to answer.

"No?"

Without a word, he slid the contraption over her toes, causing her to nearly loose her balance as the sensation was maddening as the grip holding her in this position didn't loosen or tighten, just stayed firm as he finished putting it on and using the sturdy looking latches to attach it to the boot on her foot. She wiggled her toes after he tapped the tip of each one, discovering that she lost over half of her natural movements in her toes, but she figured it beat having something break her toes, something she had suffered before growing up as she voiced her thoughts.

"Now this is something all of my people show wear, I've broken my toes three times before." She smiled as watched him release her foot and reach for something behind.

She lifted her other foot when he motioned with his free hand as he slid the other boot onto her foot and grabbed the covering for her toes as she wiggled her toes furiously for a few seconds as he moved the first one closer when he stopped and waited for her stop moving as he reached for her foot. Again she wiggled her toes as he looked up and gave her a look that had her mildly worried as he released her leg and grabbed onto her foot, two fingers around her bigger toe as she shrieked and tried to kick his grip free.

"Oh no you don't," a deep chuckle filled her ears as she hopped around for balance as he slid the first covering over her captive toe and reached for the other one, "now hold still."

"It tickles!" She shot back as the hiccupping giggle escaped from her throat as Sergeant looked up at her with a strange looking smile that didn't seem friendly as she stopped laughing.

"What?" _Why do I feel like something bad is about to happen?_

"Nothing," the sly tone reminded her of a Volus merchant about to rob her blind as he glanced down at her foot and then back up, "tell me, does this tickle?"

She let out another string of giggles and shrieks as his fingers did something to her foot, probing near her toes as the sensations caused her to explode in a full blown laughing fit as she failed to notice that he slid the remaining covering on and releasing her foot as she shot him an angry look.

"That isn't funny!" She scowled as she panted heavily, "that really tickles!"

"Then why were you laughing?" A gentler smile broke out over his face as he chuckled at the sight of her blushing again.

"I'm just not used to it," Nika sighed as she glanced at the remaining parts of the suit sitting on the bed, the helmet and her headdress remained, "guess I should put that on and clear out of the medical bay so Dr. Casey and Amy can get back to work."

Sergeant snorted as he picked up her omni-tool and handed it to her, "First we calibrate everything, synch your suit to your omni-tool and then we seal you up, besides, they are taking a break from work."

"Of course Sergeant." Nika said as she powered up her omni-tool and began to synch it with her new suit as he gave her another strange look.

"Chad," he said as he pointed a finger at himself, "just use my rank when others are around, but you can call me by my name at least."

"Yes Chad," she smiled as the synching process took a total of twenty-eight seconds as the readouts and calibrations adjusted to her body as she felt the suit run through a startup process, "it is ready."

Chad nodded as he reached over and pulled the headset off her head and handed her the helmet as she hefted the surprising weight in her hands as she looked up at the towering giant above her and smiled.

"I know this sounds weird, but could you say something in your language?" Nika asked as she nervously drummed her fingers on her new helmet as Chad arched an eyebrow, the visor had taught her several things about the facial structure of Mutants before her ears picked up a low barking.

It was deep pitch that rumbled inside her head, reminded her of a cargo bay door slamming shut as she listen for several seconds before Chad stopped and gave her a pointed look and then to her helmet.

_Not an unpleasant sound, _Nika smiled as she placed the helmet over her head and set it into the seal on her shoulders and was surprised that it had the same style of sealing lock that her old suit had, c_learly he wanted to make it easier._

Everything was muted as Chad reached over and hit a few commands on her omni-tool, causing her to nearly jump when a soft hum reached her ears as the top portion of the visor in front of her face lit up and began to give her real time suit operations.

_…__Suit seal integrity test complete…._

_…__Onboard diagnostics calibrations complete…_

_…__Power core systems operating at acceptable levels…_

_…__Software cycling test complete…_

_…__Kinetic barrier recharging commencing…_

_…__Kinetic shielding reached full power…_

_…__External communications calibration finished…_

_…__Medical gel processor conducting operations…_

_…__Antibiotics generator online…_

_…__Redundant systems nominal…_

_…__Suit is fully operational…_

Nika took a moment to examine her visor as the lines of her native language gave her the updates as the lines of code changed from red to green after the last announcement as she noticed the inside of her visor was still glowing as other interfaces came on.

Her suit's display status was on the left side of her visor, giving her everything from internal pressure, vitals, heart rate, breaths per minute and medical status. On the bottom edge of her visor were five empty boxes that were red, the words "No Weapon Detected" through her for a loop before she remembered that she had several magnetic strips to place weapons onto her suit, for now she had none. On the lower right corner was a display telling her she didn't have any grenades on her person either, but the display above that told she had ten units of medical gel ready to go and above that was a display telling her that she had six doses of antibiotics ready to go.

The top portion of her visor had a strange direction compass that told her what direction she was facing, but she was too busy working on her omni-tool as her com line appeared in the upper right corner of her visor.

"Everything alright in there Nika?" Sergeant's-Chad's voice asked her as she looked up to see Chad still standing there watching her closely as she blinked away the tears forming at the edges of her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Yes, this suit is amazing Chad," she fought back a sob and wrapped her arms around his chest and set her head against his shoulder, "thank you so much."

She felt an arm curl around her shoulders and a strange vibration in the middle of her back register as she realized that he was comforting her, "Its' okay Nika, still got a few more surprises for you yet."

Nika calmed down after a minute as she took several deep breaths, "I'm fine now, this is all overwhelming."

He took a step back and gently grabbed her left arm and entered a few commands into her omni-tool as a second later, Nika blinked as a soft light illuminated the inside of her helmet as he released her arm.

"What is this?" She asked as she checked her omni-tool to see the last command entered was labeled "Internal Lighting Activated" before she looked up see her own reflection, the one of her face inside her helmet, off the dark glass of a nearby cabinet.

"So everyone you meet can see what you really look like," Chad shrugged his shoulders, "the Codex doesn't have accurate information and this will make it easier for the crew when you introduce yourself, but you can turn it off if it makes you feel uncomfortable."

The last time Nika remembered about anyone ever asking what her face had looked like was when she had first arrived on the Citadel and that had been when a couple drunk Turains were poking fun at her as she glanced up at the Mutant, the only other living being outside of her own people who had seen her face as the software programmed into her visor began giving her the same data as that headset had given her.

_He wasn't looking terrified, horrified or disgusted, his expression is neutral and calm, _Nika fought down the urge to squeal happily and dance with joy as she smiled.

"Thank you," she whispered softly as she failed to notice that her fingers were twiddling wildly as she looked up at the tall Mutant in front of her, "it is a bit much to take in right."

Chad smiled at her as he reached up and took off his helmet, "You haven't seen anything yet."

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Once he lead the excited Quarian from the medical bay, Chad decided that he would show her where her new room was and to get the rest of her equipment as he motioned for her to follow him.

He smiled to himself at the thought of her being happy, those smiles were genuine and he knew that deep down somewhere in that gaping abyss of his heart, it made him happy to see her smile as he introduced her to a few members of the crew, passing the new data according to Quarians off to them after they introduced each other and continued heading to the direction of her quarters.

"This ship is massive," he heard her mutter as they boarded an elevator, "how was such a new species capable of building something this advanced?"

"We left our old world to avoid genocide by the species we shared the planet with," Chad said as Nika perked up and watched him as he broke into a monologue, that and the elevator was slower than paint drying, "the Asari gave us some old tech and a planet to call our own, over the last couple decades we've made discoveries and built what people say couldn't be built."

"When the news of that dreadnaught arriving at the Citadel reached the Fleet," Nika laughed as Chad paid attention, "we were surprised that your people just handed it over without a second thought."

"If you call that lightly armed cruiser a dreadnaught, you'd be surprised what my people would remotely consider even close to a dreadnaught." Chad grinned savagely as Nika snapped her head in his direction with a look of utter shock on her face as he laughed again.

"Are you saying that your people have ships bigger than that?"

"The Nemesis was a joint Mutant and Asari project that took ten years to build, at twenty-five kilometers in length, displacing an estimated four hundred fifty-six billion tons, the ship is actually a glorified cruiser class armament with enlarged cargo bays and other facilities to make it completely self-sufficient," Chad shrugged as the elevator opened to reveal the Crew Deck as he stepped into the hallway, "in retrospect, it isn't actually a warship."

"It could still trounce any ship in the current galaxy in a one-on-one fight," Nika said before she looked up at him and narrowed her eyes, "your people have ships bigger than that one, don't they?"

"No comment."

"How big is this ship?" Nika asked they continued walking.

"One kilometer, displacing eighteen point twenty four billion tons," Chad frowned as he puzzled the thought over in his head, "close enough anyway, this particular ship is a little bit longer and a tad bit heavier, why?"

Nika looked like she was about to have a full blown panic or excitement attack, he couldn't really tell, was there such as thing as an excitement attack? From the look she shot him, he was going to yes to that silent question.

"You have to let me see the engines on this ship!" She literally bounced on her toes as Chad gave her a stern look.

"I'm sorry, but that is out of the question," Chad sighed as her shoulders slumped in defeat, "ah, here is your room."

He put his helmet back on as they stepped into the airlock as Nika nervously fidgeted before the decontamination cycle finished and allowed them into the room.

"This will be your private quarters for now, it is sealed from the rest of the ship so it is safe for you to get out of your suit," Chad gave her a sideways look as he watched her take in the room, "the bathroom and showering facility in this room is safe for you to use, as well as anything in this room, so feel free to do what you want when the ship is underway and you are on your off time."

With no answer from her, Chad went over to where he left the crate of supplies from earlier and put it on top of the workbench, "I collected a standard equipment load out for you from Supply along with a few weapons for you from the Armory, if you have any preferences please let me know and I shall appropriate the proper equipment."

She stepped over and took each item he handed, starting with the pistol, submachine gun, shotgun and four grenades before he handed her a spare visor that went into the special compartment on her back and then began handing her suit patches and tools.

Chad smiled when the shocked squeal reached his ears after he handed her the combination tool, she spun in a circle and began fiddling with it, fingers flying a mile a minute as his auto translation software was having difficulty keeping up as he watched her for a full minute before she stopped and sheepishly looked up at him. Had she not turned off the lights inside her visor, he was pretty sure he would have been able to see her blush a deep purple as Chad arched an eyebrow at her in question as she slid the tool into a pouch on her left side and clasped her hands together. She avoided his gaze before she looked up to see him still staring at her as he smiled at her and turned back to the crate to hand her a few other items he figured she should have on a person at all times.

"I take it you like the tool?" Chad couldn't keep the smug tone out of his question, but he couldn't help it as she twiddled her fingers together.

"Oh, yes, I've dreamed of holding such a tool and you just gave it to me, I'm sorry for my outburst, I won't do it again." Chad smirked as he knew she was mentally berating herself as he nodded his head and quickly showed her the rest of the room.

"I am in the room next to yours if you need anything, that or else you can use your omni-tool and send me a message," Chad explained as they left her room as he removed his helmet, "now I'll give you a tour of the ship and show you where you will be working when you are not on the ground team."

The trip to the Hangar Bay was uneventful, except for the few times Chad stopped and introduced Nika to few members of the crew as they reached the intended destination.

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Nika was in awe as they stepped into the Hangar Bay of ship, which consisted of a space big enough to house at least one capital ship of the Migrant Fleet with room to spare as she took in the view.

Racks containing Kodiak shuttles covered the far wall, as well as a set of Kowloon freighters dominating a majoring of the deck as workers scurried to and fro as she followed Chad, recognizing several Mako IFVs and a few Mantis gunships as well as a few vehicles she never seen before in her life. Most of them had hard angles and cannons on them, she spotted a lone Grizzly in the process of having its turret installed into the main body of vehicle as she abruptly ran into Chad with a solid thud.

"There you are, thought I lost you back there," Chad said as he turned his upper body around to look down at her as he turned back around, "this is Elizabeth Morgan, the woman in charge around here."

Nika stepped around Chad to have a look as she spotted a red haired female Mutant standing at a workbench covered in components as she blew the hair out of her face and looked up to see who was talking to her as she carefully extracted her hands from the mechanical device Nika recognized was a throttle control for a Kowloon.

"Is this the mechanic you were talking about?" The female said as she walked around the workbench and stood in front of Chad, it was then Nika she was a rather short female as she glanced at the disassembled component and stepped around the arguing pair approaching the workbench.

"When you said you had a mechanic I didn't expect you find someone that fast," Nika ignored the banter going on behind her as she recognized the parts laid out before and picked up the first piece, "unless she can fix this headache of a problem I've been having all morning, then you better pick your words wisely."

"Well, if she can't I can always make it up to you by letting you shoot everything in my personal arsenal and if she can," Nika strained her ears as she listened to the smug tones of Chad talking as her hands were a blur, "then you have to wear that dress you hate so much for a whole day and visit every compartment on the ship after we get underway."

This statement confused Nika as she set the fixed component down and reached for the pitiful remains of a disassembled power eliminator device as she assembled in less than fifty seconds, listening to the conversation going on behind her.

"If you think for one second I would even think about putting that dress on outside of my own room you must think I have lost my mind," Elizabeth sounded angry over this "dress" as Nika discovered that the problem with the power eliminator was a blown circuit strip as she replaced it with one the many spares littering the surface of the workbench, "there is no way in Hell I would ever agree to that. Period."

Nika shrugged as she set the power eliminator aside and latched onto something she knew had to be a real pain to work, a dreaded turbine manifold as she quickly took it apart and found the broken seal gaskets and replaced them in a timely manner as she heard Chad started speaking.

"To sweeten the deal, if she doesn't reach your expectations, then I'll wear the dress." Nika perked up at this news as she glanced over her shoulder to see Chad looking down at Elizabeth with his arms crossed over his chest and a blank look on his face as the tiny female in front of him tossed her hair over her shoulder.

"Really?" Nika shuddered at the tone of malice enter this female's voice as she noticed Chad flinch as she turned back to the workbench and started organizing the tools and materials as fast as she could, "You'll have to agree to pictures and introduce yourself to the newest additions of the crew while wearing it, if you lose the bet, so which color? Green or pink?"

There was something sickeningly sweet in her tone as Nika turned around and twiddled her fingers together nervously as she looked towards the nearest exit.

"Pink," Chad sighed as he stuck out a hand, "shake on it?"

Elizabeth reached over and pumped his hand twice as she peered around him, "So where is this wonder mechanic anyway? Didn't scare her off have I?"

"She's been behind you fixing everything on your table and then organized it while we've been standing here arguing," Chad grinned in the same manner he had before he tickled Nika as he lifted an eyebrow, "I think pink looks good on you."

Nika managed to have her fingers stop twiddling as Elizabeth spun around to take in the Quarian standing behind her as she felt a look of shock cross her face as she took in the sight sitting on her workbench as she heard the laughter of that damned Matthews behind her.

"She won't bite you know." Nika glanced up at the smiling face of Chad as Elizabeth cleared her throat and stuck out her hand in greeting towards her.

"Elizabeth Morgan, Control Officer of the Hangar Deck, pleasure to meet you." The red haired female introduced herself as Nika awkwardly gripped her hand gently and shook it.

"Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar," Nika said as she let go and activated the lights inside her helmet, "just call me Nika."

"Well Nika, this is going to be the start of a wonderful working relationship if you can fix what took me an hour to take apart." Elizabeth smiled warmly as she stepped forward and wrapped her slender arms around the surprised Quarian and squeezed gently.

Nika was reminded of when her mother and aunt had hugged her and she returned the hug with Mutant, who had shown no ill will towards her as Chad lifted his arm and took a quick omni picture as he chuckled to himself.

"I think Charles is going to be jealous if he didn't a hug like that at least once a month," Chad smirked as Elizabeth turned around and shot him a glare that held the promise of death and much pain, "I still say that you look wonderful in pink."

"I say the same think every day," Charles said as he appeared next the workbench and took in the sight in front of him after a second as Elizabeth gave Nika a last squeeze and stepped back, "okay, that is a first, Chad, where did you find this person?"

Nika watched as Elizabeth pounced on the newest arrival with the same borderline ferocity that she seen most mated Quarians pairs display as the newcomer simply wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead as his eyes traveled from her to Chad and then his wife, "Who is this baby?"

"Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar," Elizabeth looked over her shoulder, "I said that correctly right Nika?"

"Yes," she nodded her head and extended her hand, "you are?"

The newcomer shifted one arm free and shook hers gently, "Charles, I see you've made an impression on my wife if she likes you already."

That one word through her for a loop as she tilted her head, "I did not understand that word, wife? What is that?"

"Mate," Chad said as he waved a hand towards the couple as Elizabeth let herself be lowered to the floor, "married, bonded, life mates, or partners in life if that clears things up."

"Ah," Nika said as she turned to Charles, "she must really like you then and I am happy for your union."

Charles smiled as he looked down at his mate, "You are the only other person she likes on this ship, Matthews over there she barely tolerates, but I can say she likes you too."

_Mated pairs are this open? To strangers? Oh Keelah, _Nika nervously fidgeted her fingers together before Chad stepped forward.

"What he means to say is that Elizabeth over here has a hard time opening up to people due to her nature," Chad paused as Nika shot him a look, "look up empathic Mutants when you get the chance, she can feel the emotions of other people around her and tends to like them based off those feelings."

A silent sigh of relief washed over her as she turned to face the couple again, "This is true yes?"

Elizabeth nodded her head as she stepped forward and gently placed a hand on her shoulder, "Yes, I find some people unbearable to be around while others seems perfect for me to be around," at this she gave a look over her shoulder to Charles, "you however are the first stranger I just, know for a better lack of words, I will happily take you on as a mechanic here."

"You know," Chad said slowly as a smile crept across his face as he turned to face Charles, "she just admitted to losing the bet of having to wear a dress around the ship for the whole day while taking a tour of the ship, I agreed to pink."

Charles looked excited at this news, "I have just the thing for her to wear."

Elizabeth shook her head and turned to face her mate as she poked him in the chest, "I don't think so buster, you are not picking out the dress I have to wear on my humility tour."

He gave her a hurt look as Nika wondered if she had hurt him as he spoke in a lower tone that her audio sensors were able to pick up, "I thought the summer dress would look good on your my dear."

The expression of his mate changed from one of anger to a soft smile as she embraced him again and kissed him tenderly as Nika wondered if she should look away at the intimate moment between mates, but she noticed Chad simply sigh and appeared to be content waiting as she did the same, making a few notes in her mind.

They were obviously a mated pair as they finished the kiss as Elizabeth turned back to face the workbench as her mate wrapped his arms around her and held her in a comfortable embrace.

"Very well Matthews," she said as she stuck out a hand, "you won this round."

"Thank you," Chad smiled as he shook her hand again as he looked up at her mate, Charles, "is it the one with the bow tie and frills?"

Nika was sure she would have missed the next bit as Elizabeth tore herself from her mate's embrace and stood in front of the giant who hadn't so much as flinched.

"I will one up you one day, don't worry Matthews," Elizabeth hissed as she turned to look at Nika with a softening expression, "I would prance around this ship naked for that girl."

Nika was confused at those words as Chad lost his smile and patted Elizabeth on the head, "I didn't know she would mean this much to you."

Elizabeth sighed as she walked over to Nika, who stayed rooted to the spot as the smaller female embraced her again.

"This girl has a heart of gold, an inquisitive nature and a soul of pure happiness," Elizabeth said as she looked into the darkened visor with a smile, "there is something about her that makes me want to kill for this girl and I would protect her as if she was one of my own."

Nika smiled as she felt her heart warming up to this woman and hugged her back, memories from long ago coming to mind as she rested the chin of her helmet on her shoulder and hugged her back with as much vigor as she dared, tears forming as she blinked them away. This was the second happiest moment since she had left the Fleet as she ignored everything going on around her as she was swamped with emotions bursting to the surface as everything finally caught up with her.

The ridicule since she left the Fleet, all the time she had spent alone, hungry and tired, the near death, her rescue from the clutches of death itself, the new environment she found herself in, the medical recovery, the omni-tool, the suit, the room, the chance among these people, a job where her talent wouldn't go to waste, a friend and a protector rolled into one and now someone she could call a sister by Quarian standards. As much as she wanted this dream to end and for her to wake up, she knew it was real and better than her dreams as she knew that this woman, however strange she may seem to others or to her at the beginning, was now someone she wanted to know as the hug ended slowly as she took in the expressions of the two males patiently waiting behind them.

Charles, Elizabeth's mate appeared to have a gentle smile on his face as he carefully stepped forward and wrapped his mate in a gentle embrace that she gladly returned as Chad had a look that appeared haunted or even sad as she wondered what made him appear so sullen.

"Where did you find her?" Charles asked as he directed his question at Chad with a soft smile.

"Dying with a knife shoved into her chest in an alley on the Citadel." Chad answered blankly as Charles's expression changed from concern, to rage, to disbelief and then back to concern as he snapped his head in the direction of Nika as his mate simply walked over and pulled Nika in the direction of a door, muttering something about recovering patients and light work details.

"Good ahead," Chad nodded as Nika gave him a look as Elizabeth gently pulled her across the Hangar Bay towards the office, "I just need to clear up a few things with Charles and then I'll take you to meet the rest of the team and the Captain later."

Nika nodded and followed after Elizabeth without complaint as Charles turned to face Chad, "Tell me you got the bastards."

Chad nodded, "Don't worry about that, I got them and would happily stand in front of the Council in full getup for days on end if I had to."

"Good," Charles nodded as he watched the retreating pair disappear into the office, "I don't think she would ever open up to people again after what happened and now she finally has."

The death of a daughter would do that to a mother as Chad sighed, remembering her as he looked up at Charles and tried to form the words, but simply couldn't as Charles simply nodded and patted him on the shoulders.

"You don't have to say anything, it is good to see her care about something other than work or getting through the day," Charles sighed as he rubbed the talisman hanging around his neck through his shirt, "she has lost so much since that accident, our daughter is in a better place I liked to think and no matter how hard we try, I think it turns out that the doctors were right."

A cold vice gripped his heart as Chad thought about the bundle of joy that had been their daughter, an innocent life snuffed out by a simple monorail accident that claimed the life of many people, their daughter as well as maiming Elizabeth in a way that devastated the woman, to never have children again.

Chad laid a hand on Charles's shoulder and patted it as the other man collected his wits, "Thank you again for bringing her to us, it will make it easier for her to cope now that she has someone she can…"

"Act as a mother too," Chad smiled as he laughed suddenly, "what do you think she'll teach her first? How to dismantle an engine core or how to down whiskey shots?"

Both men glanced at each other and laughed hysterically for a few minutes as other members of the Hangar crew gave them strange looks and avoided them for the time being as they continued their work as both men collected themselves and approached the workbench.

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Nika watched as the woman forced her to sit down in a rather large chair as she bustled around the room, which had workbenches lining the walls, various components in various states of disarray as tools covered everything, just the contents of this room alone could keep a single ship running for months.

"Had that idiot told me you had been wounded earlier I would have offered you a seat sooner," Elizabeth said as she pulled up a shorter stool next to the chair Nika was seated in, "how are you feeling?"

"Fine," Nika smiled after she turned the lights on inside her helmet, "your medical technology does wonders, I only hope I can get a sample of the drugs to take back to my Fleet before I have…."

Nika caught herself as Elizabeth simply smiled and looked up, "I would offer you something to eat or drink, but I think the amino acids in the food I have here would kill you."

"That is alright," Nika nodded her head as a thought crossed her mind, "what shall I call you?"

"Elizabeth works just fine my dear," she smiled as she set a datapad down in front of her, "this is the usual contract I have all of my workers read over and review, it outlines your work detail and salary payments, due to the fact you are pulling double duty as the ground team gives that superiority over your job here."

Nika picked up the datapad and sent the file to her omni-tool before she began reading it carefully, surprised at the amount she would be earning, "Is this payment operating on repair time or actual day payments?"

"Day payments according to the Citadel labor laws," Elizabeth answered as she noticed Nika was clutching the datapad rather tightly, "are you alright?"

"Labor laws only apply to the species in the Council races," Nika said as she looked up, "I would earn more in a day here than in a month on the Citadel, just because we are not considered a Council race."

"That is complete fucking bullshit!" Elizabeth shouted as she jumped to her feet and began pacing around the room in a silent rage that had Nika terrified, "How could anyone survive on wages like that! In a suit that requires maintenance! Those two faced bastards treating others like garbage!"

After a moment she calmed down and marched over to where Nika sat curled up in fear as her expression softened as she sat down on the stool again, "I'm sorry, I just find it hard to believe that they would treat anyone differently."

Nika smiled as she patted her three fingered hand over Elizabeth's knee, "It is okay, I managed perfectly fine in my time on the Citadel and the best thing that ever happened to me was when I ran into Chad."

Elizabeth looked up with a frown, "Chad? Don't you mean Matthews?"

"He only asked me to call him Sergeant or Chad," Nika frowned as Elizabeth smiled, "is that bad?"

"Oh no, not at all, as much as I don't like him whenever he tries to dismantle one of my vehicles inside my vehicle bay," Elizabeth smiled as she covered Nika's hand with her own, "it has been a long time since he asked anyone to call him by first name."

"He cannot dismantle a vehicle?" Nika frowned as she glanced down at her lap, "I think he built a decent suit, he did build me this one."

"He built you that suit?" Elizabeth asked as she reached over and touched the collar section of her suit.

Nika nodded, "Yes, he said he used scans from my old suit and built it better."

"Well, he has a talent for building things, blowing things up and fighting, but never ask him to dismantle anything or else you'll see why I would rather shoot him."

"What?" Nika asked as Elizabeth laughed and walked over to a smaller desk covered in datapads and picked one up and returned to her stool.

"He tried to dismantle one of the tanks to see how it worked in order to build one of his projects," Elizabeth explained as she handed the datapad over, "forgetting to take the power cells out of the vehicle before he did."

Nika watched as the datapad began to play a recorded video of Chad, wearing only a jumpsuit tinker around the turret of a Grizzly. He had a tool kit next to him as he was busy working on something as she looked up at Elizabeth who nodded her head at the datapad, prompting her to continue watching. Ten seconds later and brilliant display of sparks erupted from section of the turret he had been working on before he scrambled backwards, falling off the side of the tank and out of view before the turret exploded in a violent explosion.

"Keelah!" Nika cried as she jumped to her feet, clutching the datapad as she noticed the smile Elizabeth had on her face, "What is so funny?"

"Just watch." Elizabeth said as Nika watched the video continue as Chad reappeared in the frame.

His jumpsuit was in tatters as his hair was blown up on end that appeared comical in a way as he rubbed the back of his head and sighed before clapping his hands to his face. Two seconds later his head snapped up as his eyes enlarged in size as something off screen launched its way towards him and collided with his face, a wrench it seemed as an irate looking Elizabeth Morgan appeared on screen and kicked him hard enough to launch him across the hangar bay.

"He blew up a tank?" Nika asked once the video ended as Elizabeth nodded, a smile creeping across her face, "How did he survive?"

"He is a Feral class Mutant," Elizabeth paused for a second, "he has a self-healing ability that can heal normal life threatening wounds in seconds, a blast like that didn't even phase him for a second, he built up a tolerance for pain after all."

Calculations of power output, kinetic energy variable translation and then the amount of heat generated from that blast told her that a Krogan would have become a gooey mess on the other bulkhead as she glanced at Elizabeth, "How would be build a tolerance to that kind of pain?"

"Matthews over there saw a little action against a bunch of slavers a while back, you probably heard of him, the Ghost of Rakka."

**Taaa-daa! Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive and kicking, also figured that I should answer a few questions while I was at it.**

**Question 1: You portray the Mutants as being overpower, both with technological advancements and abilities to each person, isn't it a little overboard?**

**Answer: Actually, if you think about, how many Mutants are there in this current galaxy? If they attempted some kind of coup, the Turains, Batarians, Salarian, Drell, Hanar, Elcor, Volus and even the Asari due to the fact they see everyone as their allies if Mutants attacked simply outnumber them in both ships and armies. **

**Question 2: I can see that "Logan" and "Sabertooth" are in this story, will we see more of the X-Men originals?**

**Answer: How many X-Men do you know of that can live for extended periods of time? (Spoiler Alert: How does meeting the descendants of mutants we all know and love sound?)**

**Question 3: Is there a Shepard/Collector/Reaper/Geth theme to this story?**

**Answer: Guess we'll have to find out…..hehehehehehehehehe **


	6. Mutants Effect Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: A Past Revealed**

Chad watched as the digital readout above his head slowly count down until they reached the Bridge, well a sub-deck portion of the Bridge that was as far as anyone of the newly appointed ground team would be allowed to go so they could receive a mission briefing from Captain Carter himself as the ship was underway to leave the Citadel proper and they would be hitting the Relay in about an hour, so Captain had sent a ship wide announcement for the newly appointed ground team to reach the briefing room. He had gotten Nika free from Elizabeth's clutches, earning a scathing look from the borderline insane mechanic to take care his latest charge as he led the quiet Quarian back to the proper elevator as all three members of the ground team showed up with a Trooper escort.

He noticed that the Turain took notice of Nika and snorted in disgust as every fiber in his body screamed at him to lash out and tip his mandibles off one by one as he restrained those urges.

Instead he turned to face him, "Kilvinero? Have you been assigned a station here on the ship yet?"

The Turain looked up shocked for a moment, "I am going to be assisting your master-at-arms, with Technical Master Sergeant Brody is it? I have the job of cataloging and cleaning spare hardware we have on the ship."

"Excellent," Chad turned to face Tonya, "and what is your station on the ship?"

Tonya bowed her head respectively, "I have been assigned to further assist the individuals with biotic potential with further training as well as becoming a physical fitness instructor."

Chad turned to face Mavoik, who had been busy working on his omni-tool until now, "Oh yes, assigned to scientific research and study, as well as providing medical assistance with Dr. Casey in the medical bay, interesting biology of Mutants as a whole, genetic mutations unheard of in other species, results incredible."

Knowing that it wouldn't hurt to keep an eye on the Salarian for now, Chad turned to face Nika, mostly to introduce her to the rest of the ground team as she looked up and noticed the others were staring at her, "Mechanic in the Hangar Bay under Officer Morgan."

"Overpaid suit rat gets to carry weapons?" Chad caught the muttering in native Turain as he turned and gave the Turain in question a scathing look.

"Tell me something Kilvinero, in your personal opinion, would you say it is difficult to skin a Turain?" He asked as he pulled one of the many knives had on his person from his belt and began twirling it around one handed at speeds the naked eye would have difficulty tracking without taking his eyes off Kilvinero as he stepped forward.

"Uh, sorry?" Kilvinero said as he noticed Chad stepping closer.

"You heard me, got a problem with working with a Quarian on this team?" Chad asked as he flipped the knife end over end without looking at it, each toss throwing it higher and higher into the air.

"No."

"That isn't what I heard you mutter under your breath a second ago."

"I didn't say anything for you to hear." Kilvinero said as he squared himself off with the Mutant.

"I know," Chad grinned as he caught the knife and twirled it around his finger, "you shouldn't have a problem with taking orders from the Quarian while we are on ground operations then would you?"

Kilvinero gaped, well, as close as a Turain could gape with the mandibles and all as he leaned forward, "I would form a complaint against such action."

"Tell me, who has overriding authority on this ship? You or me?" Again he started flipping the knife while never taking his eyes off the set of grey orbs narrowed with hostility.

"I will not take orders from a suit rat even if one stood at your side at Rakka because I do not recognize them as a Council race and therefore inferior to…"

In the next spilt second Chad had Kilvinero pinned to the opposite wall of the elevator with his free hand, effectively pinning said Turain six inches off the floor by his throat as he continued to toss the knife in his other hand as he leaned in closer.

"Let's get one think straight here Spectre, on this ship you have no authority and as such, you fall under my command and what I says goes," Chad growled as caught the knife and glanced at it, "this ship is all about making friends with others, but my job is to make sure everyone gets back in one piece and if you ever question an order I give you ever again, I will maroon you on the nearest planet with only a suit of armor, your weapons and little rations, understand that?"

"I refuse to listen to any order that suit rat will give." Kilvinero defiantly shot back as he reared his head back and drove his scaled head, fringe included, directly into Chad's face.

A loud snap was heard as Kilvinero wailed in pain as Chad watched the bone fringe dropped to the floor as he merely blinked and tightened his grip.

"You should know that I am very difficult to injure and have very little patience for insubordination," Chad smirked as he reared his head back and delivered a head-butt in return, "it would detrimental to your health if you listened to me and what I says goes."

"Please, there is no need to fight amongst each other," Nika said as she stepped forward, "I am used to such prejudices and it does not bother me."

Chad turned to look at Nika as Kilvinero began gasping for air, "Anywhere else Nika that would be considered the norm, but on this ship there will be none of that on this ship, understand?"

"Would recommend lowering Kilvinero down now," Mavoik said as he raised his omni-tool to scan the Turain briefly, "suffering from a lack of breathable air will cause unconsciousness to occur and pain from the broken frontal skull scale will affect cognitive function and memory."

With a sigh, Chad set him down onto his own feet and let go after sheathing his knife and gave Kilvinero a stern look, "Will there be any problems?"

Kilvinero shook his head while clutching at his throat, "No, who knew it would hurt to butt heads with a Mutant? Spirits, that hurt."

"Should have warned you," Chad smirked as he tapped the side of his head, "got a metal plate up there in case you were wondering why it hurt so much, though I can't say I am sorry about the fringe thing."

Kilvinero bent down and picked it up carefully as he cradled his head with his free hand, "Oh well, it'll grow back in a few years anyway."

"Display of dominance respected by Turain instincts," Mavoik mentioned as he put his left arm down, "superior prowess and strength has earned you the right to give orders."

"Thanks," Chad said to Mavoik as he turned to face the open door and stepped through, "the Captain is waiting for us."

"Sergeant Matthews," Liza's avatar appeared on the podium next to the elevator as the four people behind displayed various expressions of shock, "it has come to my attention that raised aggression pheromones have been detected, as well as threatening gestures toward bodily harm, is everything alright?"

Chad knew that Liza was just acting like a dumb VI instead of an actual AI for the benefit of the others as he addressed her, "Not at all Liza, how is the ship?"

"Systems operating at nominal standards, main drive cores online as the ship is ready to depart towards the nearest mass relay in fifty-six minutes, Captain Carter is awaiting your arrival on the bridge."

"Thank you Liza."

He lead the way through two security checkpoints, everyone in the group handing over any weapons they had to claim at a later date before they reached the briefing room and waited.

A group of five Troopers were waiting for them, aside from the pair of guards standing outside the door as Chad took a quick moment to get over everyone in the room as he waved for everyone to take a seat around the table as he mentally figured out everyone sitting in this room.

First was Lance Corporal Malcolm Dewalt, a younger man with brown hair and green eyes, small for his size, but he was one of the better known Mutants for his speed and his biotics, not only that, but he was a qualified sniper. He didn't have his weapons on his person, but Chad figured that he was good enough to make the team by his rifle score alone, so he had some competition it seemed.

Next was Corporal Samuel Mason, a fireplug of man with chestnut colored hair and black eyes, he was also one of the few Troopers Chad felt the need to bash his head in every once in a while just to keep him on his toes and in line, but his energy manipulation, a fancy way of saying he could shoot concentrated plasma from his hands and eyes, coupled with biotics and a wonderful helping of close quarters combat training second to none, made him the CQC expert on the team.

Sitting next to Mason was a the shortest member of the team, Specialist Alana Summers, the team telepath and biotics guru who also doubled as the team medic, she had taken medical courses in Asari, Turain, Salarian, Volus and Elcor biology as well, so she could patch up just about any living creature in this galaxy.

The one with the shit eating grin on his face was none other than Petty Officer Second Class Jones Whitmer, an avian class Mutant with a set of wings, complete with bronze colored feathers, sticking out of his back who was a natural at flying anything through the air, starships down to parachute rigs, he also made the team as being the first pilot to ever engage a hostile enemy ground position from the air, the pilot for the team.

Last but not least was Special Agent Hank Boomer, the only member of the team who wasn't a Trooper or swabbie by trade, but he was a biotic Vanguard and the team's infiltration expert with his uncanny teleportation technique that had an effective range of three miles, but anyone going along for the ride would find out what happened after their brain cells were rearranged, instant death.

Silence filled the room as everyone seated stood up and sized up the group of aliens before Chad motioned for everyone to sit down as he turned on the holographic projector.

"Alright everyone, you all know why you are here, but command likes to beat it into your skulls over and over again in the event one of you slept through the briefing or didn't read the fine print when you signed on for this little adventure," Chad said as Liza appeared as her avatar next to a miniature display of the mass relay network, "I'll begin with a brief summary of our mission."

Everyone present took a seat and paid attention as Liza disappeared as the relay network enlarged, focused on the Widow System where they were currently located before a predetermined flight path appeared, connecting ten other mass relays together before it ended at the 489 Relay, on the edge of discovered space that had been opened before the Rachni Wars, but never truly explored and mapped out due to the fact that the Rachni had been on the verge of destroying the galaxy before the Krogan had wiped them out.

"We are avoiding areas and systems filled with heavy slaver and merc activity, until we hit the 489 Relay, we are stopping for nothing," Chad explained as detailed information on the status of the 489 Relay appeared on the screen, which wasn't a lot, "in the last two hundred years it has been discovered that no communication signals, energy signatures or sentient life had been detected from the relay itself, so we can expect to run into a few planets at the least, but it has come to the Council's attention that someone has been using the relay for travel."

No one really seemed surprised by this fact as observation reports came into view, "Various slaver and merc groups have been reported to using this relay in increased activity over the last two years, the good news is that this particular network is still within Council space so there isn't any worry about starting a war in the Terminus System, then again everyone knows what happens when you mess with COM." Chad smirked as wisecracks and replies went up around the room as he crossed his arms.

"This is going to be a joint operation between all known species present to explore, chart, log and find anything of remote interest," Chad rested his hands on the edge of the table and looked around the room, "as of right now, all prejudices stop here, don't like working with each other and I'll show you to the airlock, any problems occur after this and I will kneecap said individual and throw them into the nearest airlock and space them, understood?"

No one said a word as he set both pistols down on the table in front of him, "I am a fair person, have any problems, concerns and anything that requires my attention, you know where to find me."

"Seems like someone isn't going to wait for the real commander on this trip," Chad smiled after he heard a familiar voice speak behind as everyone Mutant in the room jumped to attention, Nika included it seemed as the others simply sat there, "maybe I should order you to wear your dress uniform around the ship."

"Then I'll run through more uniforms than we have onboard," Chad answered as he turned around and shot Captain Carter a quick salute, "you were taking forever old man, get lost along the way?"

"I'll have you know smartass that I designed this ship," Captain Carter growled as he answered the salute and slapped him on the shoulder, "let the real men do the talking."

"Easy companionship between Captain Carter and Sergeant Matthews noted, indicates past history," Mavoik noticed that every head in the room turned to face him as he lowered his omni-tool, "observation states that a strong professional relationship is in place, shared hardships."

Chad shook his head and glanced over at Captain Carter, "Think you can remember when you're supposed to speak? I can have Liza show you some flashcards?"

An annoyed grunt was all he received for an answer as Captain Carter took the floor, "Most of you are veterans from Rakka and other colonies, some of you have years of experience that others don't, so starting today you will be conducting training sessions down in the simulator to evaluate how well you work together as a team, even in pairs, cause any problems for the team or crew and I will personally fill out the paperwork that went into detail how you managed to space yourself while conducting maintenance inside of an airlock, is that clear?"

Affirmatives and head nods answered him as he punched a few commands into the interface and waited a moment before a new display went up, "Detailed reports have been showing that mercs have been using the mass relay, but six weeks ago, regular traffic just stopped, no ships in or out and the 489 Relay is still active."

Everyone sat up and paid attention as Chad stepped back and crossed his arms again as he checked the data and frowned to himself, that didn't make sense as Captain Carter hit another command.

"That isn't all, seems the STG have been monitoring the relay and were mildly surprised when six weeks ago, seventeen ships came barreling out of the relay within minutes of each other and they caught this transmission between the ships."

A moment later a static filled voice, Batarian translated into galactic standard filled the room, "We lost over….ips….no response from Jav…new threat…need assi…killed everyone…..never seen it…..stay aw…..avoid colony…lost research teams…..infects…..no hope…..THERE HERE!...ILL IT! OPEN FIRE! IT CANNO...AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH…All ships fire on…one save us."

The live video feed showed the mismatched fleet scrambling into position as they all turned as one and opened fire on the largest ship, destroying it before they jumped in FTL and vanished, by now everyone in the room was sitting up and paying attention as Captain Carter entered another command.

"Our cover story is to explore any unknown systems and planets, but our secondary goal is to figure out what caused a large force of mercenaries and slavers to abandon wherever they came from, estimated reports show that well over a million people, a conservative estimate mind you, are still on the other side of that relay."

Chad raised his hand, "It the STG is good enough to not only track this information down, have they conducted intelligence operations and question the survivors?"

Captain Carter shook his head, "Negative, all of the ships head on a vector straight to Omega, but didn't stop there, by the time a ship from the STG team reached Omega, they were all gone, random relay vectors to the four winds."

"Operation protocol dictates that in the event of first contact protocols all actions are to be taken," Mavoik replied as everyone turned to face him again, "resources and manpower aside, protocol makes it impossible to pursue action without the consent of the Council as per order of 3675486.864 Intelligence Act."

"Thank you," Captain Carter said as he froze the image of the 489 Relay, "there are still the remains of a single cruiser class ship well outside the effective range of the relay itself, a week ago a STG infiltration team went in to examine the wreckage, four hours after they docked with the ship, contact was lost."

Another file opened, this time it was audio as well video as everyone paid rapt attention to the holographic display as Chad realized that it was some kind of helmet camera as it began playing out.

"(Bleep) Team in position outside functional stern airlock," the view showed the inside of a ship umbilical attached itself to what could only be the ship that had been blasted apart several weeks earlier as five other suited Salarian operatives came into view, "we are proceeding to enter once a solid lock has been established."

Fifteen seconds later, the hatch opened with a hiss of depressurizing, as the other Salarian operatives began floating, "Lock established, (Bleep) open the hatch so we may continue."

A Salarian, the only one armed with just a single pistol Chad noticed, floated over to the hatch and simply pried them apart with a door splicer as the rest of them went through the door as the video feed changed to a low lighted feed showing the inside of a darkened ship.

"Can we improve the feed?" Kilvinero asked as several people shushed him as the team reached a large compartment of the ship, a cargo bay from the looks of it.

"(Bleep) be advised we are detecting traces unknown molecules on the deck and walls and traces of blood from Turain, Salarian and Asari, but no bodies." The view slowly panned around the entire cargo bay, showing floating crates, broken panels, equipment, tools, wire and circuit components hanging in zero gravity as frozen globs of blood were seen as well.

At first glance the cargo bay appeared to have been at a loss with no artificial gravity or lighting, but he noticed that the cargo bay appeared to have weapons fire damage along the walls and floor, he could even see that some of the flotsam bore marks of battle as well. The Salarian team had engaged gravity boots to right themselves on the floor as they spread out and began searching methodically, using omni-tools to scan random objects or surfaces as the view point changed from the floor to the ceiling.

Chad figured that the operative was trying to get a higher vantage point and to have a look down view of the cargo bay as the individual lights revealing the operatives showed that they were moving around in random search vectors.

"(Bleep) be advised we are not picking up anything living on the motion sensors, scanners or detectors, no sign of bodies either, crew must have collected there dead before escaping." The disorienting visual was now upside and glancing downward at occasional intervals that made it difficult to get a clear picture before a loud scream filled the room.

"They made a mistake splitting up." Kilvinero scoffed as the look Mavoik shot him made Chad want to face palm and sigh deeply.

"(Bleep) respond! What happened to (Bleep) and tell me who is firing!" The view changed again as the operative jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor again, two other operatives running past as all three of them moved around the maze.

The scene showed one of the operatives huddled on the floor in the universal fetal position covered in blood as the others spread out and searched the immediate area.

"(Bleep) what happened? Where is (Bleep)! Did you see what happened?" Everyone watched as the team leader tried to get a response from the petrified Salarian as the other two reappeared, a shotgun and a submachine gun respectively.

"What do you mean you couldn't find (Bleep)? We are the only ones on this ship!"

A blur detached itself from the shadows and tore into the Salarian with the shotgun as the one armed with the submachine gun was suddenly yanked towards the ceiling out of sight as the camera whipped back and forth, no doubt the operative was backpedaling as a burst from the assault rifle just below the camera sounded off as the other Salarian suddenly bolted in the opposite direction.

"(Bleep) Answer me! Respond! (Bleep) this is (Bleep) Team! Something is in here with us and it is taking us apart!" Chad figured that about this time any movie director would throw in another sense of danger and unknown as the view slammed to the side violently as a loud screech was heard before the camera feed suddenly went dark.

"Cue the creepy music and wait for the monsters to come out of hiding," Corporal Mason said as he cracked his knuckles, "sounds like fun."

Captain Carter shot him a look that silenced the Trooper, "Are you not even worried about how a Salarian STG infiltration team got wiped out by something they couldn't detect with all their fancy scanners and high tech shipboard sensors?"

"Nope, just want to shoot something, sir." Mason answered as he shrugged.

"Moving on," Chad sighed as he looked back at Captain Carter, "anything else the after action can report?"

"That is the puzzling part, the shipboard crew couldn't detect anything, they have recordings of the team dying and going dark, but nothing they can detect," Captain Carter shrugged as he turned towards the table, "they did find something though."

"Energy signatures on low theta waves were detected for sixteen seconds after every member of the infiltration team was killed," Liza explained as some kind of sensor reading was projected for all to see as Chad narrowed his gaze as the recording began playing through, "after this, the ship went dark for good."

All he could tell was that the five yellow blobs were the dead STG team, as it appeared that it was some kind of thermal scan as nothing happened for five seconds before each heat source was suddenly snuffed out like a candle before the scanner on the edge of the corner of the display spiked in some energy detection waves for several seconds as it suddenly stopped.

"What was that?" Kilvinero asked as he leaned forward in his seat.

"Possible flash freeze exposure from defunct cooling unit inside the cargo bay?" Mavoik suggested as he typed away on his omni-tool furiously.

"Liza, rewind video and pause at three seconds in and then enlarge the view," Chad said as Liza acknowledged his command and did so as he stepped closer to the table, "now play the video for eight seconds."

Everyone glanced at him and the display as he motioned for Liza to rewind and play it again as he uncrossed his arms and scratched at his chin as he motioned for Liza to cancel the display as the lights came back on as he crossed his arms again and frowned.

"What did you see?" Captain Carter asked as Chad brought the video back up and simply pointed.

"Watch the third body for discoloration near the chest and head," Chad said as he watched the video play for several seconds, "is it just me or does it look like the body is moving?"

Everyone watched closely as the image focused on the body Chad had pointed out as the heat signature around the body changed, not in intensity or color, but the naked eye could easily see a shifting in the color consistency of the mass, almost like the limbs were twitching.

"Could the nervous system still be reacting while the neurons in the brain keep responding, causing muscle spasms perhaps?" Summers said as Chad shook his head.

"Little known fact about Salarians, when they die the brain dies faster than any other part of the body, resulting in no known after death reflex actions, even in death they don't twitch," Chad said as gave her a look, "I thought you had training on Salarian biology?"

"I do, I was trained on keeping the dying from actually dying," she said as she gave him a look, "how would you know that?"

"Killed enough of them to notice that little fact," the room went deadly silent as he crossed his arms again, "I've also seen the limbs of a dead person move on infrared before too, but why can't we see whoever is moving the body?"

"It is a zero g atmosphere they are in." Tonya answered as she laced her fingers together.

"Then why are they still pinned to what I am assuming is the nearest wall?" Chad said as pointed at the display, "those suits would go offline once the internal computer realizes that the person inside the suit is dead, so no way the gravity boots are still engaged."

"The scanner can pick up random objects inside the cargo bay moving around, crates and the like, so why are the bodies still in one place?" Boomer said as Captain Carter asked as turned towards Chad to address him.

"It'll be up to your team to figure out that mystery when we reach the relay," he said as he turned towards the door, "I have a ship to pilot and you have a job to do."

"Of course sir," Chad saluted as the rest of the Troopers in the room stood up and did the same as Captain Carter responded and left as Chad turned back around to face the rest of the room, "we will reconvene in the simulator on the Rec Deck in two hours, bring your armor, weapons and skills, but please no grenades or anti-vehicle systems please."

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Nika was pretty sure that her head was reeling from the recent information she had gotten from the briefing as the mission update was uploaded to her omni-tool for her to review and study for later as she pondered the team she was going to work with as she browsed the dossiers on her way to the combat simulator.

Because she hadn't read the Mutant guide yet, she went back and forth between the dossiers and the guide when something threw her for a loop. Shocked at the diverse abilities these Mutants possessed, her mind was racing as she watched the educational tutorials of each ability so she was familiar with the concept of individuals teleporting short distances, unleashing plasma based energy attacks and communicating with their mind as she went through each dossier one by one. The shock of the diversity made her wonder how the Flotilla would react as she downloaded the entire data packet to later send back to the Flotilla once she was given permission to do so before they passed out of range of a com buoy, if she was allowed to do so.

To think that she so little about Mutants and now she was going to be working with them, they had given her a job and a place on a team, the first of her species to encounter these newcomers as she wondered how her people would view them as she reached the final dossier.

_Sergeant Chad Matthews, _she paused for a brief second before opening the dossier as she sat down in the hallway outside of the elevator to stay out of the way for now.

The first thing that stuck out at her was that he was a rare type of Mutant, the only Feral class on this ship as a matter of fact as she reviewed the information on Feral Mutants.

_Incredible reflexes, strength, senses and regenerative abilities? _

Nika felt something akin to jealousy and envy as she read up on the ability Feral Mutants had, born without medical tampering, absolutely perfect. In the eyes of a Quarian, it was the ultimate freedom to walk around without the fear of dying from a simple breath of unfiltered air, without the need for a suit to keep them alive, to feel air on her face, to touch things without something between her skin and whatever she was touching.

The time she had spent in the medical capsule had been more than what any of her people could ever hope for, the ability to be without a suit and not worry about a faulty gasket or seal that would result in her death, compared to the most advanced clean rooms on the Flotilla to that simple medical capsule, one of several in the medical bay on this ship alone made the clean rooms of the Flotilla appear shoddy in comparison.

Moving on with her musing, she continued to review Chad's- she still couldn't help the small smile as she mulled the name over in her mind- service record as she frowned at the datapad.

_Ghost of Rakka, _the word had no definition among her people as she ran a quick search on the word, first on the codex and then through the Mutant database she had at her fingertips, _I wonder what it means?_

The codex gave several different translations to the word, but the Mutant definition struck out clearly as she slowly scrolled through the short text translation.

_Ghost- noun: An apparition of a dead person that is believed to appear or become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image upon this plain of reality._

_Synonyms: Phantom - spirit - apparition - specter – shade – vengeful entity – haunting soul _

Next she ran a quick search on "Ghost of Rakka" and was stunned by what she saw.

Thousands of megabytes bore statements, reports, audio, video and picture logs as she carefully treaded her way through the data as she read the first citation carefully.

_Citadel Time 2275- slavers operating under the Terminus System Pirate Union (disbanded due to being dismantled and destroyed) forcibly attacked Asari held space, focusing on the planet of Rakka, as it was the largest colony with the smallest naval presence and the farthest away from help. After casualties through light orbital bombardment to destroy a majority of the defenses Rakka possessed, slavers invaded with the intent to capture as many slaves as possible before the COM (Coalition of Mutants, see reference in tab) arrived with an unknown number of ships of unknown class. The slavers were decimated while the COM naval forces lost a single ship, ground operations were later conducted to remove the slaver presence from Rakka._

_Sergeant Chad Matthews (Biography of Matthews, see reference in tab) and his squad of Troopers (military arm of COM, see reference in tab) were the first to arrive on Rakka, most of the squad was killed in the crash landing (Memorial of Fallen Troopers on Rakka, see reference in tab) before he began to single-handedly decimate the slaver forces after the last of squad was killed. In five days, without rest, first aid, sleep or help, Sergeant Matthews rescued an accumulated two thousand innocents in a nearby temple while repelling multiple attacks, taking mass accelerator fire multiple times to his unshielded and unarmored body. Through the use of firearms, physical attacks, explosives, unarmed combat and biotics, Sergeant Matthews was credited for four hundred sixty-eight confirmed kills and one hundred twenty-five probable kills (Timeline of Battle, see reference in tab) alone. _

_It is noted that his family (Biography of Matthews, see reference in tab) was also reported among the casualties in the temple after several vehicle grade ordnance were fired on the temple with the intent to target Sergeant Matthews._

Nika practically froze at this as she slid down the wall and took several deep breaths to calm herself down as she gaped at the datapad for a brief moment before she continued reading.

_Sergeant Matthews was reported to have cleared several key landing zones for reinforcement forces to arrive after the slaver fleet had been destroyed, resulting in more COM Troopers and Asari Republic forces to arrive and reinforce the temple and rescue the rest of the stranded civilians on Rakka before Council forces arrived and contained the situation, driving the rest of the slavers out of the system. _

_Sergeant Matthews was the first Mutant to ever be awarded honors of other races (List of Awards, see reference in tab) for defending a colony on a planet that wasn't his own, earning the awards that most Spectres or soldiers of most nations could ever hope to obtain in a single battle._

Nika set the datapad down in her lap for a minute before she brought it back up and decided to find a little bit more on the Mutant she would be following orders from as the first video appeared and without a second thought, she hit Play.

It was a low quality helmet camera video feed as she noticed that it showed a large group of Batarian slavers with a few dozen Vorcha, a handful of Turains and even a single Asari, all of them armed and moving towards what appeared to be a temple in the distance, the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the air as Nikka watched closely before everything exploded on the screen.

She could see a burst of mass accelerator fire appear from off-screen after six grenades went off and strike down a group of Vorcha huddled together as the entire group of slavers burst into action after a large grey giant appeared from underneath the remains of a sky car, assault rifle in hand. The simmering aura of a biotic barrier was noticeable as more than forty weapons were pointed at the Trooper, who rolled to the side after using an unfortunate slaver as a body shield for additional protection. The video paused for several seconds for Nikka to realize that the Trooper was armed with an assault rifle and a long bladed weapon covered in various colors of blood as the video began playing again.

It took her a second to fully realize that the video had been slowed down so she could follow the video as the Trooper slaughtered his way through a pack of slavers with bursts of assault rifle fire, vicious swings of that bladed weapon and brutal kicks followed by a healthy dose of grenades. Once the Trooper dismembered over half the number of slavers in the group, the video suddenly went back to when it started to play at a slower speed and then played at real time.

Sixty-two seconds, that was all the time a single Trooper needed to effectively kill twenty-two slavers at close range with weapons, biotics and melee weapons as Nika noticed that the slavers were reacting at what she figured could only be normal speed as the camera feed promptly died when the hulking grey Trooper appeared directly in front of the slaver, assault rifle overheating and weapon in hand as Nika paused the video. Up close she could easily see the numerous punctures and holes in the armor, dark red stains told her that blood had seeped out of these obvious bullet wounds before whatever stopped them as she noticed that the side of the helmet was nearly destroyed. The visor was also shattered, leaving half of the face exposed as Nika took a long look at the face of the Mutant she knew as Sergeant Chad Matthews.

It wasn't the same person she knew, the face matched with the eyes, hair and teeth, but she didn't need the facial recognition software to know that Chad was angry, furious actually.

"Excuse me, Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar?" Nika about jumped out of her suit as she snapped her head up to look for whoever had called her name as she spotted the cursed VI belonging to the ship projected on a pedestal nearby.

The construct was featured after a female Mutant dressed in strange clothing and it looked concerned for a better lack of words as it spoke again.

"Are you alright? I detected an elevation in heart rate and breathing, are you suffering ill effects of the medical treatment?"

"What?" Nika was confused at why a VI was remotely worried about her as she stood up and stowed the datapad in the spacious pouch on her right hip, glad for the available space to store items.

"Are you alright?" The VI, Liza if she remembered correctly said again as Nika cocked her head to the side.

"Um, yes I am fine," she realized that she should have held onto the datapad because now her fingers were twiddling wildly as she looked up at the VI, "thank you for your concern."

"Of course, it is within my operating capacity to monitor the welfare of the crew and with undocumented behavior, biology or mannerism of Quarians on hand, I apologize in advance, but it is my job to develop that sort of information by watching you," Liza said as Nika stepped closer, "any findings will be given only to our chief medical officer and the captain of this ship only to ensure patient confidentiality."

A semi-aware virtual intelligence monitoring her every move, Nika had to resist the urge to reach for weapons and blast the pedestal into oblivion as she calmed herself down.

_This isn't like any ship you have ever served on, this is all normal for them, _Nika took another calming breath as she looked up at the projection.

"That is no problem," she remembered what Chad had told her about creating a reference database for Quarians because the information they had was faulty, "if you have any questions, you can ask me."

The VI appeared to blink as it smiled at her, "Thank you Nika'Hozrh nas Gehjar."

"Just Nika please, what should I call you?"

"The crew has given this unit the name of Liza, it is appropriate."

Nika smiled underneath her visor as she twiddled her fingers together, "I was wondering if you could show me where the simulator is?"

"Of course Nika," Liza smiled again as her projection turned, "follow me."

If anyone back the Flotilla knew that she was following instructions from a VI, she would never live it down as she hurriedly followed the VI.

_This is going to be a strange Pilgrimage._

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Chad sighed as the familiar and comfortable weigh of his armor settled into place as he finished securing the last gauntlet into place and stretched to see how everything fit.

It was like coming home for him as he finished strapping the armor on before he checked each weapon and then stowed them on the various points of his armor before he reached for the next weapon, rather than his typical machete.

It was his latest development in weaponry, few could actually use it without resulting in broken bones or bruised bodies as he pulled it out of his locker and set it down on the workbench to examine it.

The large machine gun was his goal to bridge the idea of an infantry portable large caliber assault weapon that had power, range and flexibility to serve several different roles as a typical weapon, everything from anti-vehicle purposes to even anti-air if the target was a hovering gunship or something along those lines as he debated on if he should take it with him and put it through its paces or leave it until later. Fully extended, which was a joke because only the barrel guards and butt stock actually retracted into itself, leaving it larger than most missile launchers and nearly twice as heavy as he checked the weapon. In theory it could fire anywhere from two hundred fifty to three hundred rounds before overheating, depending on the ammo mod, weapon condition and how well the heat sinks did their job, accurate up to three hundred meters and twice the power of his own assault rifle, which made this a perfect weapon to mount on vehicles, mechs and ships, but as an infantry portable weapon, it left something to be desired.

For one it was damn heavy, but for Chad it wasn't an issue as he hefted the weapon up and then stowed it in place where he had placed the machete earlier and knew the weight of it on his back was something to get used to as he paced around his quarters a few times as he grabbed his helmet and stepped out of his room and headed in the direction of the combat simulator.

His role onboard the ship was to train his squad and the rest of the Troopers on the ship, in a sense making the combat simulator his personal domain as he ran into Mavoik outside of his room.

"Ah, Sergeant, was wondering where this combat simulator is, do you mind if I follow you?" Mavoik asked he blinked at super speeds.

Chad suppressed a sigh and nodded, "Sure thing, this way."

He knew something was up when Mavoik matched his stride and gave him a cheeky smile, "I have a question."

_Kill me now, _Chad glanced over at the Salarian next to him as they stepped through a hatch, "Fire away."

Mavoik was confused for only a second, "Fire away? Speech idiom used to clarify request?"

Chad nodded as Mavoik tapped his chin, "I see, was wondering what weapons manufacturer supplied you with those weapons you are currently equipped with, they are like nothing I've ever seen before."

"I designed and built these prototypes myself and any information about them is classified," Chad gave the Salarian a level look, "next question?"

"Seen reports of Rakka, was wondering if you would explain a few things," Mavoik continued rapid fire as they reach the elevator and stepped inside, "would like to know if new form of combat stimulants were used in the prolonged battle, biology reports show that most Mutants would have fallen to fatigue and mental stress."

"Rage is a Hell motivator to keep killing," Chad answered bluntly as he sighed, "ever have kids Mavoik?"

"No, not personally," Mavoik said as he looked up, "so it wasn't combat stimulants?"

"My wife and child were in the same temple as those refugees," Chad growled as he shifted his body away, "if you ever ask me again, I shall rip your fucking arms off and beat you to death with them, understood?"

Mavoik actually took a step away and gulped, "Yes."

Chad didn't say a word as they exited the elevator and walked down the hallway before they reached the combat simulator where most of the ground team was already gathered as he stalked over to the operation console and began uploading the standard training scenario as everyone watched.

The room was a highly advanced blend of holographic projections, state of the art sheets of plastic that could reflect light to appear as walls, vehicles or other surrounding surfaces. With the ability to change the scenario to anything in a manner of seconds, the simulator could allow anyone to train in any kind of environment, from a city environment to the inside of a ship and the climate controls could actually generate rain, snow and high winds to help with authenticating the scenario. The room was ten meters high, fifty meters wide and a hundred meters in length with the command console next to the door, but Chad figured that a simple firing range setup was enough for now as enough targets appeared for everyone to have one.

It also helped that the corresponding name appeared above each target, simulated to show twenty meters as everyone oohed and admired the system at work before he turned around to address the group assembled before him.

"Before we break down into partners and groups, we will begin with basic marksmanship and weapon proficiency at first," Chad spotted the annoyed looks he got from the Troopers as well as a particular Turain that he resisted the urge to punch, "for many of you, handling weapons is part of the trade, but for others this might serve as a refresher to polish those skills."

"We are not only going to be conducting weapons practice, but also physical, biotic and tech skills in this room as well," Chad typed the commands into the console as it rearranged itself into an obstacle course complete with doors, short walls to climb over, pits, rocks and other terrain features, "to see how well we can all work together as a team to appoint team positions and roles."

With this he was standing in front of Kilvinero with an eyebrow raised in question, because he knew the Turain was going to have a problem, but he didn't get a response as he continued.

"Everyone to your assigned station, we'll start with pistols."

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Captain Carter raised his brows as he carefully read through the report he had just gotten from Liza as he sighed and set down at his desk to take it in.

Standard ship operations he could handle easily, space battles if he had a bottle of decent liquor afterwards, writing reports to the families of dead crew members was something he loathed with every fiber in his person, but political wrangling wasn't something he signed on for as he set the orders he had just received from New Haven as well as the signed order from the COM Ambassador.

It never failed, just when he thought things were going smoothly, someone decided that it was time to change this and shake the trees to see what fell from them as he set the datapad down and laced his fingers together in deep thought.

These new orders were for the Reckoning to wait one day cycle for another COM issued ship to arrive to deliver some important diplomatic cargo that was to be delivered to the Quarian Migrant Fleet after the current mission was completed in an order to begin diplomatic trade with the one non-official race of the Citadel races that hadn't offended every other race through slavery, absurd religious practices or outright hostility.

Three hundred years ago the Quarians had created a race of machines that became sentient, took offense to the hostility towards them and ousted the Quarians from their own homeworld, resulting in a staggering loss of population that nearly devastated the race. The Council at the time had stripped the Quarian people of their embassy, Council seat and then forbid them from ever populating any planet due to the fear of them creating another machine race that could potentially overthrow the Citadel species, sentencing them to wander the stars in a fleet of derelict ships older than most relics in this day and age.

The Asari hoped to release the Quarian people from their sentence, but the rest of the races refused, that and with the COM command coming into play, everyone figured that the Mutants could break the three century old sentence and ease the burden of suffering the Quarian people underwent as the underdogs of the current galaxy and it would be a bountiful power play in the long run. Being the most technical savvy race aside from the COM itself, with the proper resources the Quarians could build just about damn near anything they put their minds to, a feat proven countless times over the last few decades when the Asari encountered random Quarians on their Pilgrimages, but Asari mentality as a whole wasn't accepting of the idea of forming an alliance with the Quarians.

Captain Carter knew that somewhere in the grand scheme of things it would make the rest of the galaxy see how well the Mutants were able to play nice after the mixed publicity from Rakka, that and the other two options were either the Krogan or the Batarians, neither of which would never happen according to recent public polls based on the opinion of many accounts and reports from Rakka.

Mutants saw the Asari in general as more than just allies, in fact if it hadn't been for the intervention of the Asari, he wondered what kind of future his people could have had if a war had broken out in genocidal proportions back on Earth all that time ago. Now that they were several million light years away, that and the relay leading from that system was inoperable so there was never a chance for the Humans to reach this current galaxy, a good thing in the eyes of many as he scratched his chin and glanced back down at the datapad.

Whatever had scared the Council on the other side of that Relay had gotten them good, resulting in only what amounted a shaky green light to proceed, but it was advised that they could be facing Rachni so protocol dictated that a survey team on a smaller craft would be sent through, simply to scan the system for any kind of hostile presence and then to return back through the Relay once the all clear was given. Nothing was ever painted in such clear quality when it came to the Citadel Council as the usual political undertone was detected, meaning that if the Rachni did inhabit the system beyond the Relay, then it would on the Mutants to make sure the Rachni didn't invade and if they did, then it would be the Mutants fault if they did.

Naturally the political wrangling behind the scheme was to allow the rest of the Council to get their hands on COM rated tech, specifically weapon and ship technology by the Turains, medical technology and biology secrets by the Salarians and the rest of the assorted raced wanted to get their hands on Mutants in general.

Mutants could visit a limited number of Council planets, stations and the Citadel itself, but it was heavily regulated and most visitors were never around long due to the fact that most of the trouble they ran into when other parties made it difficult for them to remain unnoticed. The biggest problem was that slavers, mercs and kidnappers had been trying really hard for a long time to get their hands on a Mutant and the track record was Slavers: Zero and Mutants: Sixty-Three. If it wasn't for the telepaths capable of finding any given person across entire systems, they would've had a much larger problem on their hands, which was why telepaths were officially labeled as empathic, one of the many best kept secrets COM had when it came to the Council.

Moral of the story, many had tried and many had failed to capture Mutants in the past, so Captain Carter figured that the handful of telepaths along with the amplifier onboard the ship could easily detect any potential threat near the ship, hence the reason why they had avoided several infiltration attempts on the ship by rouge factions, as well as few sanctioned ones by various members of the Council races, a fact that the ambassadors would put to good use. Political blackmail worked in under the table deals, but proving such actions were sanctioned without pulling the information out of thin air or illegally obtaining the information was hard work, so far the Reckoning had deflected such attempts by targeting said aggressors.

Many a stealth craft was mildly surprised when they discovered a kilometer long ship moving into position to line the main gun up with their own vessel to avoid hitting anything else beyond their ship or discovering how embarrassing it was to have a smaller shuttle magnetically latch onto the offending craft and drop it off on some landing pad on the Citadel, preferably with a large C-Sec contingent nearby to detain and search the ship.

Most of the time it was some private interest group that would attempt to flee or fight back that would result in the Ship to Ship Combat Team, a group of Mutants who specialized in this type of combat would board the craft and detain said crew without leaving any trace or record of them, so far that team had just finished "adjusting" an tramp freighter that had gotten close enough to run scans over the hull. The only thing the freighter had discovered was that the sensor systems as well as the ship computer had melted two seconds after they attempted a second scan and found out how efficient a Mutant boarding team was as the C-Sec cutter, a glorified patrol car in his eyes, pulled up alongside and took the crew into custody.

Council members were shocked at how Mutants in general treated potential enemies or anyone caught trying to steal technology or hardware, so it was advised that anyone captured would be handed over to the proper authorities, that and Captain Carter figured that the black listed Spectres and special ops of the Council wouldn't wind up floating in space with a neat hole blasted through their heads after a severe public punishment that didn't really put anyone at ease. If it had been up to him, there were a lot of disgruntled crew members who had either lost someone or knew someone who had been killed on Rakka and the Council could never claim that they sanctioned a special team to spy or steal something from COM forces because it could be declared as an act of war.

"Captain, there is a high priority communication packet coming from the Citadel Council Chambers," Liza spoke as the screen in front of him powered on, "Ambassador Creed is requesting a moment of your time sir."

Translation, drop whatever you were doing and answer the call, Captain Carter mused as he placed the glass of liquor out of sight and hit the answer button as he waited.

Once the secure transmission signal was checked eight times a second for any kind of hacking, jamming, detection and virus packets that would turn a secure transmission into a damn party line, the screen came to life as Captain Carter was faced with none other than Ambassador Creed.

"John you old bastard," the smiling face on the other end waved a hand, "good to see you, how are things doing?"

Unlike most politicians Ambassador Creed was one of the few that Captain Carter could stand being around as he nodded respectively, "Nice to see you too Logan, we are all ready to go."

"Did you get your new orders?" Creed asked as he laced his fingers together and leaned closer to the camera as Captain Carter simply nodded his head while tapping the fingers on his right hand twice.

In the event that someone managed to infiltration the communication packet or monitor the call, some information wasn't discussed over com channels, so a form of hand signals, body language and discreet verbal hints were used like a code if the person on the other end of the communication knew what to look for and it would confuse anyone who could have hacked the transmission.

"Good, then you have your objective to complete," Creed said as he nodded his head to the side as he looked off camera for a brief second and smiled, "I'll owe you a round of drinks when you get back."

"Of course sir, someone has to do your job," Captain Carter smirked as he caught the undertone as Creed leaned back in his chair and placed his feet up on the desk, "dropping out of range in a few minutes sir, anything else?"

"Got a list of everything that was attempted to smuggled through customs onto your ship," Creed said as he nodded at the camera, "what the Salarian closely, tricky little bastard tried to put components of scanners and com units inside his food capsules."

Captain Carter raised his brow at this news as he knew the proper action for that, "Copy that sir, should we space him now to save ourselves the trouble?"

"Negative, he is one of the best Spectres and the Council would frown on us killing one of their best, just keep him restricted to various non-essential areas of the ship until I give the order for otherwise," Creed gave him another look that Captain Carter translated in his own head, "good luck Captain."

"You as well sir," Captain Carter sighed as the transmission ended, "Liza, revoke Mavoik from the areas of the ship classified Level Two and higher, let the crew know that he isn't allowed anywhere else, period."

"Of course Captain," Liza paused for a second, "it has come to my attention that they are currently engaged in live weapons fire training in the simulator and Sergeant Matthews has requested that the team isn't to be disturbed for the next two hours."

Sighing, Captain Carter shook his head as he sent a message to Dr. Casey regarding Mavoik, basically he wasn't allowed to get his hands on anything bigger than a tube of medical gel and a standard medical scanner for the remainder of the mission.

"Ship entering mass relay field in ten seconds," the helmsman said over the ship wide com unit, "secure all loose items and brace for acceleration."

Captain Carter brought his glass of liquor up to his mouth and pounded the last two fingers and placed his hand on the datapad sitting in front of him as the deck plating beneath his feet rumbled like a leviathan raising from a deep slumber as he spun his chair around to face the bow of the ship.

Relay jumps for a ship this size required for a sudden burst of speed with all thrusters to ease the ship into FTL speeds easier, resulting in lower drift and better control over the ship as the screen in front of him showed the relay coming closer as the brilliant light grew in intensity before the ship suddenly jolted.

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Ambassador Logan Creed smiled as the live feed of the COM Reckoning disappearing into the relay at flank speed was enough of a spectacle to have it aired all over the Citadel as he turned to face his brother with a smile on his face as his mate arrived with a tray covered in drinks.

"History in the making," Logan said as he took a tankard offered towards him as he wrapped an armed his mate as she let out a giggle and swatted him on the arm, "let it be written in the history books people."

"Wonder what is waiting on the other side of that relay," Victor said as he climbed out of his seat to take the tray of refreshments, "how hard can it be to wipe out a bunch of bugs?"

"Doubt it was Rachni," Logan said as he kissed his mate and took a sip of beer while cradling his mate in his lap gently, "sensors would've caught a trace of that, but they didn't."

Victor tapped his chin as he picked up a glass filled with hard whiskey and drank it in one pull, "Damn good thing we have plenty of decent alcohol from Haven or else this job would be brutal."

"Feral genes are a damn good thing to have when getting hammered isn't on the agenda," Logan smiled as his mate stood up and wandered over to where the child crib was sitting against the wall as he watched his mate and cub with a faraway look in his eyes, "among other things."

"Get a room," Victor scowled as he grabbed another shot, "getting all sappy and shit is worse than listening to the Council whine."

Logan shook his head as he got out of his own chair and walked over to take his cub into his arms after kissing his wife tenderly, "Sometimes you have to have someone in order to know what it feels like brother."

Victor rolled his eyes, "Now I want to throw up."

**End of the chapter people, sorry for taking so long, other things and projects got in the way, might as well answer a few questions while I am at it.**

**Question 1: If the Mutants shared their technology, wouldn't they be the top power of the Citadel?**

**Answer: If a new party/group/nation was to integrate into the fold with other groups/parties/nations, wouldn't they want to have a few aces shoved up their sleeves? What would happen if the Salarians discovered telepaths? Turains got kilometer long super dreadnaughts?**

**Question 2: Is Sgt. Chad and his team going to run into Humans?**

**Answer: No…..not yet anyways.**


End file.
